


Ruins of Dusk

by MrAlec



Series: The Wild Souls Series [1]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Book 1 of Wild Souls, Death, Deaths, Diamond Roles are Switched, F/F, F/M, Genderbent Peridot, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Lion is Blue, Male OC - Freeform, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Second Gem War, Sexual Themes, Steven's P.O.V, Trans Lars (Steven Universe), Violence, alternative worlds
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-02
Updated: 2018-07-28
Packaged: 2018-08-12 08:26:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 11
Words: 51,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7927753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrAlec/pseuds/MrAlec
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You know, it sucks when the last thing you see before blacking out is yourself getting struck with a bunch of gem shards. And then when you open your eyes, you’re in a different universe. I didn’t know how I got here, and I didn’t know why I was here. In all honesty, I just wanted to get back home. I had found out that my dad is a meth head, my mother is still alive, and my other mom is Pearl. Follow me in an adventure where I learn things about the people I love in this universe, and how I met a new friend on the way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just kind of rewriting this book again, its pretty much me editing and adding different thing here and there. Changing a couple of things as well. Updating things that are cannon in the real show. I would like to know how you think about the new style.

“What happens if he doesn’t take the drugs?” The voice said over a speaker on the cellular device, “He deals drugs, and his has been sober for over a year now.” The man that was holding the phone listened to the voice on the other end. He ran his hand through his hair, and sat down in front of a desk. “Sir … I am afraid that he might not go through with this.”

“Look here, if he doesn’t take the drugs then the world as we know it is going to be gone. We need the other one, but we can’t have both of them in the same universe when it happens.” He set the phone on the desk and put it on speaker as he got up and went over to a cabinet. He pulled out some scotch and a glass, putting a couple of ice cubes in, he poured himself some scotch.

The room was filled with silence as he made his way back to the desk and the phone. “Sir … are you sure about this? Are you positive that they are on their way? I do not want to hurt the boy if …” The man cut the anxious voice off with the slam of his fist on the desk.

“I wouldn’t have given the drugs to him if I wasn’t sure. I haven’t been undercover this long for this not to be true. Do you understand me?” His voice was taut, and it scared the disembodied voice on the other side of the phone. The man’s hand was shaky as he brought the glass to his lips and took a sip. He needed to calm himself down before he burned down the place.

The voice was shaky, “I do understand, sir … but what if they get a whiff of what is going on? I do not need to be the blame if their son goes missing …” There was some shuffling in the background and some voices, they held of any more conversation for a few minutes until they knew they were in the clear. Once they were the voice started to talk again, “I’m too deep into their affairs, if this doesn’t go as planned I do not need them coming after me.”

“I know you are worried … but this will work. I promise you it will work.”

“Yes, I know you promise that this will work … okay here. What if it does work and the other helps us, how will we get ours back? Do you have a plan for that ..?” The man never thought this through enough to know if we are able to get the kid back or not. He didn’t want to tell them that he didn’t have a plan yet, all he knew was the drug would work, not how he would get back.

He took another sip of the scotch and waited as he felt the burn go down his throat. What was he going to tell them? He had to come up with something and quick, he couldn’t just leave them hanging like this. “Yes, I have a plan, but in the meantime you do your part in this. Call me back when he takes the drugs, and keep a good eye on the kid. You got it?” He chugged the rest of the scotch down as he waited for the reply.

“Yes, sir.” The phone was hung up and set down on the desk as he got up and poured himself another glass. He was hoping this would work out. If not, then they didn’t know what to do. This kid was in no way suitable to fight, but his counterpart was. They needed his counterpart, more than anyone knew.

The world depended on it.


	2. Chapter One

They walked through the grassy field that outstretched for miles on end, putting a hand on his forehead to keep the sun out of his eyes, he tried to see far into the distance of any sign of life. There wasn’t anything, but the green grass of the field, he was getting tired of this. “Garnet,” he whined and grabbed her wrist like a toddler would trying to get their mother’s attention. She pulled him along not fazed at all, to the point of where he slipped and was getting dragged by his knees. The fabric on his jeans that covered his knees ripped, but honestly at that moment he didn’t care. He just wanted to go home, when they said they had a mission and wanted him to go along with them, he wasn’t expecting to be walking such a distance. “How much longer …? I want to go home,” Garnet stopped dead in her tracks and looked down at him as the others kept trudging on. 

He got back on his feet and wiped the dirt off of his jeans as best as he can. The much larger gem pushed her visor’s up as they started to slip showing off her third eye on her forehead. ”Soon …” she was soft-spoken before she kept walking. If he had known that they were gonna walk such a long time, he would have brought better shoes than his flip flops or at least Lion. They didn’t even tell him where they were, or where they were heading towards.

He kicked some rocks under his feet, falling behind the others as he wasn’t even trying to match their pace anymore. “Pearl!” He had heard Garnet’s voice clear as day yelling, the sound of her voice was urgent making him look up. He couldn’t see anything, all that surrounded him was grass everywhere. He was too short to look over the grass that towered him. He started to run towards their voices, maybe they needed his help in some way.

“Steven! Stay back,” cried Pearl as she slid in front of him shielding the boy away from the threat. He was able to make out the violet color whip that Amethyst uses in difficult situations. There were only two tails coming from the whip, he watched as the third on grew as the corrupted gem got wrapped around the three. Pearl threw her spear towards the creature, but had missed which startled the corrupted Gem more than it was. It broke out of Amethyst’s grip and flung her far to the left of them, Pearl where towards Amethyst, but she was along flung to the side by the giants sharp wing.

Summoning his shield, he started to run towards Pearls and Amethyst before the bird decided to come back towards them. He made it halfway there, when the bird started to shoot gem shards at him, he manage to block some of them off with his shield while another grazed his shoulder. He hissed as the wound started to bleed, but he kept running towards the two other gems when Garnet had stopped him dead in his tracks. “I want to help them,” his voice was tight. Why did they invite him along if they were not going to let him help? He dissipated his shield, “Why can’t I help?”

Garnet summoned her gauntlets, “It’s too dangerous, Steven.” She pushed him behind her as more gem shards came their way. They were being shot out of the bird’s mouth, if somehow the gems were able to secure the corrupt’s mouth then they might have a better chance. A gem shard embedded itself inches away from my foot, “Go Steven, get to better ground, and stay hidden. Do you understand me?” He nodded, and turned around running away from the scene that was taking place behind him. He could hear the squawking of the bird getting nearer to him.

“Watch out, Steven!” It was Amethyst’s voice this time, she seemed so far away as he turned and stopped to see what she was yelling at. That instant he froze, a thought ran through his head that he should summon his shield, should get out of the way, do something. The gems were too far away from him as he watched more shards fly their way towards him. First it was a gem shard that pierced his right arm, then it was another one that pierced his left thigh. It was the shard that pierced his chest and stuck out through his back that he broke out of the trance he was in.

He looked down at the shard as immense pain ran through his whole body, he didn’t scream out, just  looked as he felt and saw the blood soaking through his shirt. The blood started running down his legs meeting with the blood flow from the other shard. He fell down on his knees, the shard in his leg embedding itself deeper. He had laid his hands around the shard on his chest, it wasn’t long after that his hands were covered in blood within seconds.  His heart beat seemed to slow, as he coughed up some metallic tasting liquid, it had dripped out the corner of his mouth.

Everything was in slow motion as black dots filled the corner of his eyes, and the world spun around him. He heard faint callings of his name, but he couldn’t tell how far or how close they were. What was happening to him? Why was he feeling cold? Was he dying? This was how dying felt like? He felt hands grab him as he fell on his side once again. One was icy cold, while the other hand was burning his skin. It was Garnet who had caught him mid fall, “Garnet,” he coughed out, spitting blood in the process. He knew there was already a puddle of blood surrounding his body, and he was  starting to feel lightheaded. “Am …” His voice was low and throaty, and he made gurgling sounds. “I …” He coughed up blood again, “Dying?” He sounded cared as tears ran down his face, not wanting to die just yet.

“N-No … Steven …” Her voice was wobbly, it wasn’t like Garnet to sound like that. She always had confidence in her voice, she needed to, being the leader of the Crystal Gems. “You’re not going to die.” His vision was fading and fading fast, he felt the presence of two other figures, kneeling beside him in the puddle of blood. “W-we’re going to get you help. I-I promise.” He had wondered what she could see in the future. Was it him dying?

He could faintly feel the soft hands of Peal move his hair out of his eyes, he looked at her as his breaths became more shallow, and his body freezing. Her eyes were like waterfalls as her tears ran down her face, her words came out horse. “Everything is going to be okay, Steven.” She had choked on his name. He knew he wasn’t going to be okay, the shard in his chest was already numb, and he was losing feeling everything. He was dying. 

He wanted to tell them that he loved them all, but everytime he opened his mouth only blood and a gurgling sound came out. He was then picked up, no pain just a tingle went through his body. He was so numb and cold, his vision was fading faster, once again he tried to form words but nothing came out. Last thing he remembered was the wind blowing in his face before he lost consciousness.

He woke up screaming, he was soaked in sweat as he sat up in his bed. His head was spinning, and he felt sick to his stomach as his hands went to his head and held it there. When the feeling had passed, he looked around. He was in his bedroom. Alive. Unbuttoning his shirt, there was no scar or bandages from where the shard had struck him in the chest. Could it have been all a nightmare? He must have been too stressed lately and his subconscious mind was taking advantage of that. Suddenly there was footsteps coming up the stairs to his loft, and Pearl sat down roughly on the bed. Her forearm went to his forehead checking for a temperature.  

“Baby, are you okay? You’re all hot. Are you running a fever?” She asked him as she removed her forearm and grabbed a thermometer out of her gem. He had no time to react when it was shoved into his mouth and under his tongue. He wanted to ask her why she had called him a nickname, it was unlike her to do so. She had found them distasteful. The thermometer had beeped and his temperature was normal. 

“Can you please lower your voice, Pearl. My head is pounding.” He groaned and laid back down on his pillow closing his eyes. Why was he alive? He was for sure that wasn’t a dream that he had. He opened his eyes back up to see her narrowing her own.

“Do not lie to me, Steven Quartz, have you been drinking last night again? Is that why you came in so late?” he narrowed his eyes back at her, how could she even think he has been drinking? He was only fifteen years old, there was no damn way he was even able to get his hands on anything like that. He shook his head just slightly, which only made the pounding worse.

He answered Pearl after staring at her for a couple of minutes. “Pearl … I don’t drink. You know this, I’m only fifteen …” He mumbled and swung his legs over the bedside edge, and went to get up. His legs were wobbly, so he slammed back down on the bed. “Also, how am I still alive? I know I was struck by a gem shard … I could feel the blood soaking into my shirt, and the feel of my body turning cold …” 

“Sweetie …” She paused thinking about the words she was going to say next. “... This next question I am gonna ask you, I need you to answer honestly. Do you understand?” He nodded his head slightly, wondering what she could possibly be asking. At least she was much calmer than usual, by now she would have been freaking out, wondering about his health. “Did you relapse?” 

He didn’t understand what she meant by relapse. Why was she acting like this towards him? He didn’t remember anything after the attack, now Pearl was acting weird and asking him questions he didn’t understand. “W-what do you mean by relapse?” She clicked her tongue, obviously thinking he was playing with her.

“Please, Steven, do not play with me here. You have been sober for little over a year. If you didn’t relapse then you did something last night because you didn’t get struck by a gem shard and you’re not fifteen. We haven’t had any threat in over a year and you’re seventeen.” He was taken back at what she said, how long was he out? How could two years passed since then? Has he been in coma? Was this all a dream still? She shook her head and got up. “I’ll get you a glass of water and some aspirin, stay right there.”

She came back a few minutes later and watched him take the pills. She shook her head as she grabbed the glass that had the water back from him. “I know I tell you this a lot, but I hope you learned your lesson from underage drinking and doing drugs.” He nodded not wanting to argue because he knew it would do him no good. He got up and noticed that he was wearing his pants, converse, not his flip flops, and his pajama shirt. His shirt was open exposing his chest from when he freaked out looking for the evidence of being stabbed. 

He heard Pearl make a huffing sound, turning his head he looked down to his bed and there was mud under the covers. There was also some dried blood, looking down at hi shoes, he saw there was mud and blood on there as well. What was he doing last night? Pearl mumbled something under her breath about how this was disgusting, and he needed to go clean up. Yeah, he felt disgusting. Walking down the steps of his loft, he went to the bathroom, and stood in front of the mirror. He stepped back just a bit and stared at his reflection.

His hair was longer than he kept it, and was pulled back into a very messy ponytail. When he took it out, his hair fell down in a mass of beautiful curls that reminded him of his mothers,  but much more messier. His face was thinner with a stubble beard, not much of facial hair, but enough to know that it was there. He took off his shirt, a lot of his baby fat was gone replaced with muscle, looking down at his stomach, he was expecting the bugling stomach. It wasn’t there, he still saw some bugling, but he had also some tightening with muscles. There was also patches of hair around his chest around and gem. His gem was shining brightly as ever, he touched it with his hand and closed his eyes taking a deep breath.

He took off his shoes and pants, leaving him in his pink boxer briefs. Noticing his body made him feel uncomfortable, he wasn’t the same before the accident, he apparently was seventeen, and he is looking like it too. He flexed his biceps and was surprised at the muscle that he had in them, he was still confused about all this. He also noticed that his height was different, last time he had measured himself he was around 4’9” and now by the looks of it he had grown around a foot and four inches taller. That was just an estimate, he could have been taller, he needed to compare himself to the others to know for sure.

Walking back over to the mirror, he examined his body more. He noticed there was scars here and there. The most noticeable scar he saw was the one on his side, it looked deep, like some had shanked him. Shaking his head, he turned on the water to the shower, stripping the rest of the way, he got it. During the whole time, he struggled with how thick his hair was. He knew it was going to be wet for the rest of the day because of the thickness. Once he was done, he dried off, and wrapped a towel around his waist when he realized that he had forgotten his clothes up in the loft. 

He walked out of the bathroom, just in time to see Amethyst walk out of her room. She wasn’t paying any attention to him as she was looking down at her phone. “There you are, Amethyst!” He heard Pearl’s orotund voice coming down from his loft. “I have been looking all over you.” She had jumped off the loft and landed perfectly in front of Amethyst. Amethyst didn’t even flinch or look up from her phone until Pearl took it out of her hand. “You and Greg left a mess in the temple, I need you to clean it up, before _She_ finds it. It’s disgusting and I am not cleaning it up anymore.” 

“Hey! What the flying fuck, P?” Amethyst yelled and tried to jump up, and tried to grab the phone, but Pearl's arm was too high in the air for her. Walking over there, he stood in between Pearl and Amethyst, one hand was tightly holding on to his towel while the other was pushing Amethyst back. “Move, Steven, this is none of your business.”

“It kind of is, this is my house too. What’s going on?” He asked with his head cocked to the side looking down at Amethyst. It was kind of a nice feeling for once instead of looking up at her, he was looking down at her. He looked at Pearl, so his estimate was right, he was 6”0 while Pearl was 6”4. It was weird, but a nice feeling knowing that he wasn’t the shortest anymore in the house. “Well?” 

“I don’t know what’s going on in fucking Pearl’s mind.” Why was Amethyst cursing so much? He had never heard anyone cuss so much in his life, other than Lars sometimes. Amethyst moved away from him and was quickly seized up by Pearl who wouldn’t even look at him. She did hand him Amethyst’s phone as she pulled Amethyst away from him and into the Gem’s cave. He couldn’t even understand the conversation they had, all he knew it was about his dad and Amethyst and a mess that they had. Maybe they were just watching Lil Butler again and made a huge mess of junk food. He threw the phone on the couch and walked up to the loft.

None of his original clothes were in his dresser, he found his favourite shirt, but when he tried it on it was too small on him. He guessed he outgrew it and needed to ask his dad to get him a larger size. He grabbed a loose fitting grey shirt, some purple boxer briefs, and some beige jogger pants. He looked around seeing no one and he dropped his towel getting dressed quickly. It was weird having different clothing than what he normally wears everyday.

Once he was dressed, he looked everywhere for his flip flops but all he found was a pair of working boots and the converse. The converse was cleaned, there wasn’t any blood or dirt on them anymore. Pearl must have cleaned them when he was in the shower. He put them on and walked down to the living room, and over to the couch where  Amethyst’s phone wouldn’t stop going off.

Amethyst didn’t have a lock on her phone, looking around once more, he swiped it open and it instantly went to the conversation she was on previous. He immediately dropped the phone back on the couch and tried to not be sick. His dad had sent a picture to Amethyst wearing leather chaps with nothing underneath showing off his dong like it was nothing. He was also wearing a leather vest showing off his hairy chest and his hair was in a ponytail. He didn’t understand why his dad would send Amethyst something like that. The phone buzzed once more, and he forced himself to check what it was. He was thankful it was an actual message. ‘Are you ready for some of this?’

Was his dad and Amethyst having a affair? That was beyond disgusting to him, and he never thought Amethyst would like a guy like him. He shook his head, it was just too disturbing for him to even think about about it. He removed the phone from the couch and put it  on the coffee table before sitting down. How long was he even out? Was this all a dream? Maybe if he found Garnet she would know what was going on. All of a sudden the warp pad lit up, maybe that was Garnet coming back from a mission. He almost fell off the couch when he saw the most impossible thing he could think of.

Ruby, Sapphire and Garnet were on the warp pad together. Ruby was obviously really upset pacing back and forth, while Sapphire was cool as ice. Garnet was just standing there still looking like her normal self with no change at all. Well, expect the fact that she was there without Ruby and Sapphire fused that is. “So, glad you are here, Steven.” Called Ruby angrily, stomping over to him. He stood up and towered the poor gem like she was a child. She climbed up on the coffee table, but it still didn’t give her much leverage. “What have we  told you and Garnet about sneaking off to party all night long?” She was so pissed that the magazines underneath her feet started to smoke. “She was never like this before you showed her the night life with Amethyst. And oh don’t worry I am going to have a talk with her too.”

He opened his mouth to speak when Ruby threw up her hands in frustration, “I do not want to hear it. You have been given this talk to over a thousand times.” Sapphire walked over and gave him a look over once before putting a hand on Ruby’s shoulder. She whispered something in her ear, and Ruby calmed down instantly. “I’m sorry, I am just upset that we had to find Garnet somewhere far away from here with a hangover.” He just stared at them, his heart racing, and his head swimming trying to understand everything that was happening right now.

When he was finally able to speak, his voice was low, “I have a question … so can you tell me how it’s possible for you two to be standing here in front of me, when Garnet is still on the warp pad?” They looked at him with a weird look, almost like the one Pearl gave him a hour ago. Of course it was Sapphire who answered him first as she was staring at him the entire time.

“Well, Steven, I am pretty sure, your parents have talked to you about reproduction. However, we can explain it to you, if you want. See, when two gems love each other very much they have this thing called –“ He held his hands up with his cheeks bright red with embarrassment.

“I understand that much … but it still doesn’t explain how Garnet is here. Let’s think logical the two of you are females, you cannot reproduce. And you two are usually fused as Garnet.” He watched as Garnet walked over and sat down on the couch next to him. She took off her visors and stared at him with all three of her eyes.

“Look, I know you are not that stupid, Steven.”  Garnet said before getting slapped upside the head by Ruby who was in return slapped upside the head by Sapphire. “Don’t touch me,” she growled out and stood up. “I am going to the barn away from you guys. You’re making my head hurt worse.”

“You are not going anywhere, Garnet, you are going to go straight to your room this instance. You are grounded from going on missions, and visiting the barn mates.” Sapphire said calmly. Garnet snickered at her mom, shaking her head. Steven at the moment was trying to figure things out little by little. It was still all confusing, but at least he was understanding a bit. Garnet rolled her eyes, before putting back on her visors walking over to the warp pad, ignoring her moms protest. She waved goodbye, and warped off.

“Oh, that girl, is going to get punished severely.” Snapped Ruby, running over to the warp pad, going after Garnet leaving only Sapphire and him in the living room. It was pretty uncomfortable, usually when they were around there was another person. He was never left alone with only one of them, except that time at Keystone Motel, and even then that was pretty uncomfortable. He looked down at his hands, he could feel her big eye staring at him. Finally, she had sat down next to him on the couch, looking up from his hands when she grabbed one of his, he stared at her. 

“I know who you are … and I want to give you a warning. Be careful out there, you are not adapted to these conditions yet. I see to many futures ahead where you are in danger. I don’t know why you are here, but I am not going to stop you.” She stood up, and left through the temple door without another word. What was she talking about? And she wasn’t going to answer any of his questions or even give him a chance to ask anyway.

He just needed some fresh air and time to think about this. Maybe if he goes visits Connie then she can help him figure everything out. Getting up off the couch, he went towards the front door when Pearl comes out of the temple. They had locked eyes as Pearl put her hands on her hips, “Where do you think you are going young man? You’re not out loud outside, you're grounded. You disobeyed my rules, and you used up all of your warnings. I want you to go back up to your room and work on the homework I made you.” Pearl was strict, but she was never strict like this with him. It upsetted him to the point of where he snapped at her.

“What is wrong with you today, Pearl? You’re acting like you're my parent. Just because you’re mad with Amethyst, doesn’t mean you have the right to take it out on me. So, stop acting like my mother because you’re not.” Pearl looked hurt at what he said, and he started to feel bad. He wanted to tell her sorry for being so rude, but he saw tears start welling up in her eyes. He opened his mouth to say sorry, but she ran back into the temple before he had the chance.

He shook his head and walked out of the house, Pearl will get over it soon enough. Or if she doesn’t and he sees her  again, he will apologize to her. He leaned against the railing of his balcony, it was a beautiful day outside. The waves were glistening from the sunlight and he heard children’s laughter in the distance. That was a bit strange to him though, no one ever comes on this side of the beach. That’s when he saw the kids running, hand in hand. They were screaming, he couldn’t tell if it was bad screams or good jolly screams.

A giant lady was following them, a camera in her hand. She had tangerine skin with reddish-orange markings on her face and arms. The woman also had thick beige - white colored, flowing hair, he had to look closer to see who it was, when he realized his heart started to sped up and his eyes widened in horror. It was Jasper in the flesh. He didn’t understand how she could be right in front of him uncorrupted. He watched her as she walked after the kids. Was she going to hurt them? Is that why they were screaming? He didn’t want them to get hurt, but he didn’t want to go over there and it wasn’t actually Jasper. He watched as she kneeled down in the sand when the kids stopped to play in the water. What if she was about to use her spin dash on them? Where were their parents and the other gems. They must know that they were here. Right?

He jumped down over the railing and landed in the sand, he jumped up onto his feet and ran over to the figure. “Stop!” He cried out as he formed his shield, Jasper just had enough time to look up from what she was going to do when he threw the shield and hit her square in the chest. The shield disappeared as he ran over to the figure who was groaning. He jumped in the air forming another shield and threw it again hitting her in the face. He landed next to her in the sand looming over her with a glare on his face. “What the hell do you think you are doing? I saw your intentions, you thought you were gonna get away with attacking the kids?”

He could see that he had cracked her gem a bit, she was going in and out like the static of a broken tv. “What are you talking about, Steven? I wasn’t attacking kids, you know this already. I was trying to get a photo for my gallery.” She growled as she stood up, her camera had flung off her neck and landed in the sand near them. “I’m going to punch you scare in the jaw if my camera is broken. Your mother is going to pay for this because I know damn well Pearl won’t.” She walked over to the camera and picked it up, “You’re glad it didn’t break, dip shit.”

“My mom?...” Was all he asked, “What do you mean my mom is going to pay for it? She’s dead …” He trailed off when he saw the look on Jasper’s face. Was there grief on her face? Disbelief?

“Rose … is dead? How’s your ma? Is she holding up? When did it happen? Why didn’t I hear about this sooner?” She started to walk away from him towards the temple when she dropped dead in her tracks before turning on her hell and grabbing him by the front of his shirt bring him to face her in the face. Their noses were inches apart from each other, “You told me that Rose was dead, you little shit. What the hell are you on? Did you take something last night?” She snapped, and he spit in her face making her let go of him. “Oh I am going to get you.”

“You two stop it …” He stood frozen in his spot when he heard the voice. The voice was sweet to his ears and familiar sounding. How could this be though? How could she be alive when she gave up her physical form to give birth to him? He turned around and a few feet away from him stood the one person he always wanted to see. His mother.    
  
Rose Quartz.

 


	3. Chapter Two

She wasn't wearing the normal pink long dress he was expecting her to wear. Instead she was dressed like she was going to go out or go to a business meeting. She was wearing a white cut out top, with a black blazer over that. It went well with the black slacks that she was wearing and Peep Toe Bootie. In her right hand she was gripping a pink leopard print wallet, her left hand was on her hip as she was giving him a disapproved look. Her hair was still very long, and curly pink styled in thick, tube-like ringlets, they shook as she walked over to them. It looked like she walked in the sand with those heels a million times as it didn't take long for her to get over to them.

"What did I tell you two about roughhousing?" She asked softly, "I took an early flight back to surprise you, but Pearl called me telling me you were being disrespectful to her. Again. And I see this." She walked over to Jasper and flicked her in the forehead, she did the same to Steven. They both rubbed their foreheads with grim looks.

"Rose, listen to me, I was just taking pictures and he decided to throw his shield at me. He cracked my gem, then proceeded to think I was going to attack people. Then he told me you were dead, so if anything you should be talking to him." He stood there watching the interaction between his mom and Jasper, multiple thoughts went through his head. What did mom mean when she said take an early lunch break? Where did she work? Why was she so friendly with Jasper?

Rose looked at Jasper again, "If you give us a few minutes alone, I will be able to fix your gem, love." Jasper nodded and put a hand on Rose's shoulder, she took a side glance at Steven before walking away towards the temple. "I was told you went out drinking last night with Garnet? Come on, Steven, you told me you wouldn't get into any trouble when I was away." He just stood there staring at her, can't believe his eyes. He must have been dreaming still. Maybe he was in a coma and that's why this was all happening. It could explain why everyone is acting weird and mom being here, and Jasper.

"I-I didn't go out last night drinking ... I was on a mission with the others ... I was stuck with a gem shard in my chest ... I must be in a coma." Rose looked down at him and clicked her tongue. She obviously didn't believe him. Of course she would, she was on a figment of his imagination anyway. He's just imagining that she would be strict with him like a regular parent. That was it. It had to be.

"Don't lie to me, Steven. I also want to talk to you about how you made Pearl cry in our room." Rose clicked her tongue and grabbed him by the wrist pulling him towards the temple. "I want you to go in there and apologize to her, I also want you to apologize to Jasper for cracking her gem. I have to go and fix that for her because of your mistake."

"Mom ..." He whined as she pulled him up the stairs of the temple. "She tried to ground me from going outside and from the TV. That isn't fair, especially when I didn't do anything wrong." They stopped on the porch and she turned to face him.

"Don't mom me. It's a fair punishment for sneaking out and drinking, you should be glad that it isn't more scricter than that." She opened the door and held it open for him making a gesture for him to move quickly into the house. He did so where he almost collided with Jasper standing in the doorway. Jasper turned around and looked at him before looking at Rose, with one glance she moved out of the way. "Turn towards Jasper, repeat after me. 'I'm sorry, Jasper for cracking your nose and accusing you of wanting to attack children. I should have known better." Steven grumbled in response before getting a death glare from his mom.

"I'm sorry, Jasper for cracking your nose and accusing you of wanting to attack children. I should have known better." He repeated, Jasper nodded accepting the apology, she then leaned over and whispered something in Rose's ear. Rose whispered something back after the exchange of words, Jasper went over to the warp pad and left. Right afterwards, Pearl walked out of the temple and stared at Rose and him. She was standing up straight, her arms were crossed over her chest, smiling brightly at his mom, then it faded when she made eye contact with him.

Rose pushed him over towards Pearl until he was facing right in front of her, "Now, I want you to tell her 'I am sorry, mom. I was being highly disrespectful towards you when I knew I was in the wrong. I'll accept being grounded, and I'll do my homework. You are also as much as my mom as mama is towards me." His mouth fell open as he looked between both Rose and Pearl trying to comprehend all this. What was his subconscious mind doing to him? 

He opened his mouth to protest but something told him to keep it shut. He repeated what his mom said before a question spurted out of his mouth, "What happened to dad?" Rose narrowed her eyes, and Pearl made a terse laugh, before his mom grabbed his wrist and look at the inside of his arm. She did the same on the other one, he snatched his arm back. "What are you doing?"

"I want to know if you relapsed last night? Did you do drugs?" She looked him right in the eye then looked over at Pearl, "Did you check his arms last night for any marks?" Pearl nodded her head, "Steven, I need you to tell me the truth here. Did you do drugs with Greg last night?"

His eyes went wide, and he shook his head, "I don't know what you're talking about. When did Dad start doing drugs? When did you think I start doing drugs? I'm perfectly fine." Rose stepped aside to let Pearl put her hands on his shoulders, she had to look down a bit to stare him in the face.

Her voice was soft as she spoke to him, "We love you, baby, but how many times do we have to tell you to not call him 'dad.' He might be the sperm donor, but nothing else and nothing less." Rose put a hand on his shoulder as well and gave him a solemn look.

"My sweet boy, if he wasn't so persistent to see you all the time, you would have never met that low life. If we find out that you were doing drugs, we will send you to the monster that lives in the walls of the temple." He couldn't tell if his mom was being legit or not. Was there a monster that lives in the walls of the temple? Also, he wondered what his dad did to be the enemy in this situation? Did he really do drugs?

"Or just send him to Matt's room. That place is scary. I wish he just let me go in there and clean the place. It's probably where Amethyst gets it from, honestly." Pearl stated and giggled along with Rose, he opened his mouth to ask her Matt was, but soon closed it. It wasn't going to get him anywhere in this situation. If this was a coma, his subconscious mind was starting to scare him more than it should. He was starting to think this might not be his subconscious at all. Maybe he should ask Sapphire and get her to help him in some way or form. 

"Sweetie, are you okay? We're not trying to be harsh, we have been so worried for you. We know how the incident affected you, and it affected us too. We loved her, she was a part of our family. If you ever want to talk about it with us you can." Rose gave him a bear hug, but he pulled away quickly.

"What incident are you talking about? What happened?" Rose and Pearl looked at each other as he asked the questions before Pearl changed the subject quickly not answering any of his questions. He slammed his fist against the wall and pain shot through him, but he gritted his teeth. "If no one tells me what's going on around this damn place, I will leave and look for the answers."

Rose and Pearl stood back, but was on alert the entire time, "How about instead we hang out as a family? Rose has been gone so much, and I-I think we just need some family time, yes?" Pearl offered with a force smile on her face. Steven's breathing was getting erratic, was she kidding him? "Should I invite the others?"

He yelled letting his frustration go, when the the temple door opened up. All of their eyes turned around to look at Sapphire. "How about you are you going to answer my questions?" Sapphire gracefully walked over to Steven and floated up towards his face, she cupped his face with her gloved hand and soothly ran her thumb on his skin.

"When the time comes. I will answer all your questions in the meantime, Pearl's suggestion sounds like a good play. I will go get Ruby and Garnet. Pearl will get the others." Sapphire floated down and walked to the warp pad with Pearl not saying another word. Steven growled and walked over to the couch sitting down on it, it was quiet. Rose didn't even say anything to him as she went into the temple he was left alone with his thoughts.

He didn't want to have family time, yeah sure it was great to have his mom with him, but he didn't like how everyone was acting towards him. As he sat there, he started to come to the conclusion that this wasn't his subconscious. Especially with Sapphire acting like that. He would have thought that the others would question why he was being so different, but they haven't said a thing to him yet.

Rose was the first one to come back into the living area, Steven had started to doze off when he was touched lightly on the face. His eyes opened and he freaked for a second forgetting where he was, Rose had stepped back a bit so she wouldn't get hurt. When he figured out where he was, he stared at his mother. She was wearing what was familiar to him, her long pink flower dress with no shoes on. He scooted up and moved his legs off the couch for her to sit down, he had noticed that there was a bunch of board games on the table. On top of the whole stack was a deck of  _Uno_  cards. 

“I’ll let you chose which game we play,” she said softly,her smile was bright and put him to ease. He wanted answers, but he guess it wouldn’t hurt to seem time with his mom even if it was all in his head. He picked up the deck of  _Uno_ cards and his mom grabbed them from him, “Ah, the game that ends friendships.” Steven giggled and nodded knowing it was true. There was a time where he was playing with Amethyst and Connie and Amethyst was getting so mad because all she ever got was yellow cards.

Rose handed him back the deck before getting up and grabbing the other board games, she walked over to the storage closet and put it on the top shelf in the back of the room. When she closed the door, the warp pad lit up. When the light dimmed down there was Amethyst, Jasper, Pearl, Garnet, Sapphire and Ruby. “I heard we are having family night, Peridot and Lapis are working so they couldn’t make it. And Matt went had something to do, so he will be a bit late.” Jasper said as she walked over to the table, and sat down on the floor near the table. “So, what are we playing?”

Pearl went over to Rose and kissed her, Steven watched. It was a bit weird to them together, but if they were happy then it was okay with him. He always knew that Rose and Pearl had a thing for each other, well at least Pearl had a thing for his mom. He looked away to watch the others sit down around the table. “We’re playing  _Uno_.” He answered Jasper softly, He scooted closer to the other side of the couch as Rose and Pearl sat down together. “Everybody knows the rules right? I don’t need to explain them?” They all shook his head and he nodded.

The game went by pretty quickly, there was yelling and laughter. He was sure that Rose was going to win until she had to keep drawing cards, then it was his turn. He only had one card left and it was the right color, he stuck it down and pumped his fist in the air. “Yes!” He giggled, but then stopped when everyone looked at him. “What …” He asked confused.  

“It’s just good to see you happy is all. You have been so angry with the world, lately.” Pearl said with a smile on her face before getting up and stretching along with everyone else. “I think it’s time for food, anyone else hungry?” Steven stared at Pearl, did she just asked if anyone  _ else _ was hungry? Did Pearl like food? He watched her walk over to the fridge, but quickly shut it. Her body turned around with her hands on her hips and stared at Amethyst. “Did you and Greg it all the food last night?”

Amethyst looked up from her phone and stared at Pearl in confusion. “I know that we might have ate a lot, but we did not eat all the food. Ask Steven.” Pearl looks at him and he shrugged and watched her sigh as she walked back over to the group.

As they were trying to figure out what to eat someone walked in through the front door. The others ignored the figure, but Steven looked over to see who it was. The guy had cotton candy color hair, and blue-gray skin and he was tall. He was taller than Pearl, but shorter than Rose approximately around 6’7 in height. He was wearing a white v-neck tee shirt that looked like it was a bit small for him, but it gave the effect of outlining his chest muscles. His pinkish purple gem was showing above the V-neck opening. He was also wearing a fitted blue jeans and what it looks like brown cowboy boots. Steven did a double take, a male gem other than himself? 

The others finally stopped talking and turned towards him, “Hey you brought pizza! Yum!” Amethyst said, “Wait … Steven doesn’t like Pizza.”

“What you mean I don’t like Pizza? I love Pizza.” He said, and everyone stared at him again, and he sighed. “I had some last night, and it was good. I was actually craving some now.” He quickly covered it up and smiled. Everyone shrugged and looked away from him. Finally, he hated when they stare.

He watched as Jasper walked over to the male grabbing the pizza from him. They exchanged a kiss and he frowned. He always assumed that Jasper would be a huge lesbian like the others, but apparently not here. Wherever here was. She walked back over to the table and set the pizza down, he didn’t seem to be as hungry as he was before. The male gem followed and walked over to Steven and ruffled his hair like a little kid, “You look way better than last night. You were stumbling everywhere, talking nonsense. It was so hard to get you back home.” He laughed before sitting down on the couch, his eyes shined a bright purple color as he grabbed a slice of pizza and started to eat.

“Yo, Matt, how was the job?” Amethyst asked sitting down on the couch next to him. So this was Matt that Pearl was talking about earlier? How did they know each other? And he wanted to know how male gems exist. All he ever known and saw was female gems other than himself, but he was half-human. Matt looked over at Amethyst and shrugged, they gave each other a look that Steven couldn’t tell what it was. But apparently whatever this job was Matt didn’t want to talk about it in front of everyone. 

After a while everyone started to ease back into conversation, they ate and joked around, it was so strange to him. How everyone was getting along, there was no fighting, no arguing, just jokes and laughter. It felt like he was home, like he belonged here in this place. Where ever it was, he sat on the floor with his head in his mom’s lap, Pearl was sitting down next to them. It wasn’t until around Midnight that mom thought it was a good time to wash up and lay down. Amethyst had to leave thirty minutes beforehand, Matt and Jasper went to the room they apparently shared in the temple. Ruby and Sapphire along with Garnet went to their rooms.

He gotten ready for bed, when both of his moms walked up to the loft to wish him goodnight. It was weird to know that his mom was still alive, it was a good feeling, but at the same time he felt like this shouldn’t be happening to him. They were too good to the Steven, they thought he was. He felt bad,he wanted answers but he didn’t want to explain to them. Plus they probably wouldn’t believe him anyway. His mom moved his hair out of his face and kissed his forehead, he loved the fact that even if he was supposedly seventeen they still treated him like he their little boy. Pearl whispered goodnight, and walked out of the loft with Rose.

Steven had laid there for a few with his thoughts before he was finally able to fall asleep. He’ll get answers tomorrow. Hopefully. The next morning was rough, he didn’t sleep very well. He kept having dreams of that mission when he was struck with a bunch of gem shards. So, the bags under his eyes were a bit heavy than normally when he got out of bed with the smell of food filled his nostrils. Looking over towards the kitchen, he saw Pearl cooking breakfast, no one else was there. He quickly got dressed, put his hair inside a man bun and walked down to the kitchen.

He sat down at the bar right when Pearl sets a plate in front of him. “I thought you might have been hungry since you have only ate pizza last night. A young man like yourself should always have a big meal.” She smiled brightly at him, it was a warm motherly smile. He started to scarf down the food not realizing how much he was hungry until now. When he was finished is when more gems started to come out of the temple it was only Garnet and Rose though. “Hi, dear.” Pearl greeted Rose and gave her a kiss once they pulled away, she handed Garnet a plate of food who accepted it. 

Steven stood up with his empty plate and walked over to the sink, he could feel the eyes of Rose and Pearl on him as he washed and dried the plate off. He stuck it back into the cupboard before turning around. “Thanks, Mama for the food.” He politely said and gave her a hug who she slowly returned it. When he pulled away he walked over to Rose, “Hey mom, I know I was bad and all, but can I got outside for just a few please?” He asked and looked at Pearl then back at Rose. 

Rose stood there looking at him, before looking at Pearl, they exchange some mental thoughts before Rose looked back down at Steven. “Sure only if Garnet goes with you. But only for a few hours.” Garnet almost choked on her food when she heard what was going down. “Isn’t that right Garnet? Do I have to get Sapphire and Ruby?” Garnet quickly shook her head before finishing her food and sticking the plate into the sink. “Good, while you are out Pearl and I have a mission to do. It’s not a very important one, so do not worry.”

They kind of just sat near the rock cliff that was next to the temple. It wasn’t much fun when none of them were talking to each other. He made drawings in the sand as he listened to the soft clicking noise of Garnet texting someone. “Who are you talking too?” He asked her trying to start conversation, she had just shrugged and kept texting. “I wonder what Connie is doing right now … I miss her.” He heard the soft clicking noise go away and he looked back at her. She was staring at him, but he couldn’t read her face expression under her visor. “Are you always like this?”  


“What do you mean, Steven?” Her voice was softer than before as she stared at him. He wondered what suddenly changed, it had to do with something about Connie. That’s when her tone changed is when he had mentioned her. He mentally shook off the thought and answered her back.

"I mean like are you always on your phone? We barely talked to each other this whole time." I shrugged, "Just thought we might get to know each other more … is all ..." He trailed off when he was interrupted by Ruby calling for Garnet. Garnet gave him a soft smile before running towards her mom leaving him alone. He wasn’t alone for long when he spotted Amethyst in the distant, like before she was also on her phone probably texting Greg. “Hey Amethyst!” He called running towards her. “Do you want to build a sandcastle with me? It looks like the perfect day to do so.”

“Aren’t you too old to build a sandcastle, Steven?” She mumbled looking up from her phone with a disinterested look. “You’re seventeen, grow up man.” She went to walk away, but stopped in her tracks with the next thing he had said.

“I’m never too old to build a sandcastle, maybe I’ll just call Connie later. She’ll build a sand castle with me.” Amethyst slowly turned towards him and gave him a almost worried expression mixed with grief on her face. She shook her head, put her phone in the back of her pocket and ran towards the beach house. What did he tell her to make her run away from him all of a sudden? It had to be the subject of Connie. Did they not like her or something? 

It wasn’t until a little bit later around lunchtime was when he had saw Amethyst again. She was with Matt this time as they walked out of the beach house and stood on the porch. He was in one of the beach chairs reading a comic book when he looked back up. “I want to go into town, but my mothers aren’t here right now to tell me I can go or not. So can one of you just go with me?” Amethyst and Matt looked at each other giving each other a look of uncertainty.

“Are you looking for a certain friend or do you just want to go into town, Steven?” Amethyst asked uncertain, she looked like she was worried about something.

Why was there so much uncertainty? He watched what he said carefully, “Um … no. No one in particular. Just kind of want to go into town. Probably stop at the Big Donut and get something to eat.”

Amethyst nodded, walking towards the stairs. "I have to meet somebody anyway." she mumbled. He guessed she was the one going to take him. He looked at Matt once before getting up and walking towards Amethyst who was descending the stairs. It was quiet on the walk to town, they didn't say much, which was a bit awkward for him. "Okay, look, if you don't tell anyone, you can go off by yourself. Just meet me back here in two hours." He gave her a thumbs up, she nodded and walked away.

Once he was in town though, he didn’t feel like going to the big donut after all. He kind of just walked around town, it wasn’t much different than what it was normally. Mostly quiet though. No one was really out and about, it was a bit lonely.  After about an hour of just walking around, he found a bench to sit on. Looking down at his hands, he noticed how large they were, it made him feel more like a giant than he really was. He was knocked out of his thoughts when he heard familiar laughing and giggling. In the distant, he had saw Jamie and Garnet holding hands, his heart sped up. Were those two dating? 

He got up and walked over to them, Jamie’s face fell and he hid behind Garnet just a bit. Was Jamie scared of him? “Hey Jamie! Hey Garnet! What are you two doing out here?” Garnet slapped Jamie on the arm who was trembling, he tried to stand next to Garnet straight, but he looked like he was going to piss his pants. 

“We’re on a date, Steven. Why are you here?  Did Rose and Pearl give you permission to be out here?” 

“Well, not exactly.  I was with Amethyst but she had to visit someone.  Just don’t tell Rose and Pearl please.” He begged, and Garnet nodded. Steven looked over at Jamie, “Hey Jamie are you okay, man?”

Jamie nodded quickly, “Y-Yeah Steven. I’m okay. Can w-we talk later? I don’t want to upset you or anything, but I have what you want.” What he wanted? He was so confused, but he just nodded. 

“Alright, that’s cool dude. Well, it’s good to see you two dating. I wonder if Connie knows about this. I can’t wait to tell her, she would be so happy to know that you two are dating.” Garnet whispered something to Jamie who nodded and walked away towards Fish Stew Pizza. Garnet looks right at me and took her visors off. 

“Are you okay, Steven?” She had asked him, his smile faded to a frown of concern. Why was she asking him this?  Was it about Connie again? Why was everyone so concerned all the time?

“Yes … why?” He asked slowly, looking side to side like something was about to happen.    
  
"You keep mentioning Connie. That's why I asked. I mean I know you miss her and all. We all miss her, bud, but you need to stop acting like she is here. She isn't coming back." His heart started to skip a couple of beats and his  breathing went erratic, he felt like his throat was closing and his lungs were going to collapse. 

It took him a few minutes to respond, "What are you talking about?" The next couple of words hit him like a brick was thrown at his face. They stared at each other while his legs wobbled underneath him, his voice was caught in his throat. He wanted to say something, anything, but nothing came out. Please tell him that the words  he heard was not true. Tell him anything but this. How could this be? How could this have happened? What kind of sick joke was this. He slowly went numb after a few, the words continuing in his head as he didn’t want to move.    
  
"Connie's dead, Steven."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "A thousand times we die in one life. We crumble, break and tear apart until the layers of illusion are burned away and all that is left, is the truth of who and what we really are." - Teal Scott


	4. Chapter Three

**Back Home**

His eyes moved under the eyelids like he was having a bad dream, but in all reality he was trying to open them up. His head was throbbing as he tried to remember where he was at without looking at the room surrounding him. He had to be back in his bedroom, that's the last thing he remembered before he had fallen asleep the other night. Why did his body hurt so much if that was the case? He tried to move a finger, but he was barely able to feel his hand or any body part at that.

When he was finally able to open his eyes, he wasn't able to tell where he was. The light above him was dim, but it still hurt his eyes. Closing them once again to try to get rid of the stinging pain behind his eyes, he opened them again trying to get used to the light. Once that happened, he realized he wasn't in his room like he thought. Instead he was in a hospital room with a tube down his throat, trying to stay calm and not freak out he concentrated on trying to move his hands. When he managed to do that, he had touched something next to him. Whatever he touched grabbed his hand in return, it was much larger, rough to the touch, but warm and friendly.

He didn't know how to feel about the warmth and friendliness of the touch, it almost repulsed him, but at the same time, he rather enjoyed it. "Steven, are you awake?" The voice was deep and rough, but full of so many different emotions. He wasn't able to tell who the voice belonged to, "My son, can you hear me?" the man's voice was urgent, but he couldn't move his head to see who it was. He didn't know anyone other than Pearl and Rose to call him 'my son,' so it just confused him more.

His eyes followed the figure until he stood in front of him. It was Greg, he was plump middle-aged man with a dark-beige beard that had specks of grey in it, he was wearing a white tank top with cut off shorts. It was weird to him, when did Greg change his appearance all of sudden? And where was his hair? Greg had walked around the bed and pushed the button for a nurse to come in, he stood there and grabbed ahold of his other hand when the door squeaked opened. A beautiful nurse came in with caramel skin, and her short hair was black. She was friendly as she asked Greg to move over so she was able to take his vitals.

It was weird for him to be treated like this, everyone treated him like he was different, like they needed to be careful or they would make the wrong move. It had hurt when the nurse took the breathing tube out of his throat and it made him sore and itchy. "There you go, kiddo. How about we get you some ice cream for your sore throat?" He gave the nurse a thumbs up as he wasn't able to talk or move his head as it hurt to much. "How about chocolate?" He felt like gagging, chocolate anything was disgusting to him. He gave her a thumbs down, "Vanilla?" His eyes lit up and gave her a thumbs up. He loved Vanilla ice cream, it was his favourite flavor.

Greg was in front of his bed again staring at him with the tears falling down his face and onto the hospital floor. He wasn't sure why they had let him in then the others, especially mama would have never let Greg visit him in the hospital. "Where ... is ... my ... moms?" His words were barely a whisper and he was pretty sure Greg didn't hear him as he went in for a hug. Greg didn't smell like cigarettes and alcohol, he actually smelled of after shave. He whimpered as Greg tightened the hug and let go quickly afterwards.

"Does it still hurt? I'll be more gentle next time. You scared me there, son. I thought I was going to lose you, like I lost Rose. You're my only family." He wiped away his tears the same moment the door opened up in his room. Steven thought it was the nurse with his ice cream, but instead it was his Mama Pearl. He was half expecting for her to kick out Greg, but she just stood there staring at him. Her peach hair wasn't pointed like normal, instead it was messy like she hasn't been caring about her appearance. She slowly walked over to him and grabbed his hand. 

"Steven ... I thought I had failed your mother. I thought I had broken the promise I made to her fifteen years earlier. I thought I had failed to protect you. Her only son. You have no idea how happy I am to see you awake." He didn't understand what she had met, fifteen years ago? Where was his mom? She put a cold hand on his cheek and moved his hair back out of his eyes. Another red flag for Steven, something wasn't right here.

He motioned her to come closer to her, she put her ear close to his mouth as he choked on his words. "Mama ..." He took a deep breath then started to speak more. "Where ... where is ... mom?" Pearl stood back from him with an almost shock look on her face, which turned quickly into confusion. It was almost like she didn't understand what he was asking her. He didn't get a chance to ask again when the nurse came back with his vanilla ice cream. The nurse handed it to Pearl before helping him get into a sitting position, when she was done she gave him a soft smile and walked out of the hospital room.

The ice cream was soothing on his throat, once he was done it made him feel much better and he was able to talk more loudly than he was able to. "Mama, is mom home or out running errands? Will she be back soon?" he asked Pearl, and looked into her eyes. She looked confused, "Did I say something that I wasn't supposed to? I'm sorry ..." He quickly apologized, then was taken back. Why was he apologizing for something like that?

"Did the doctors tell you anything about a brain injury, Greg?" Pearl whispered towards Greg who shook his head, "I should go ask the doctors about this. He is talking nonsense." When she was about to leave Greg put a hand on her arm and shook his head.

"No, I'll go see. I should go get some sleep anyway. I haven't had a good night sleep in a week. Watch over him okay, Pearl?" Pearl nodded and Greg walked out of the room. Steven was confused as all hell, why was everyone acting strange around him. Did he accidentally over drink last night? Or was it even last night? How long was he out? Pearl looked at him as she scooted the chair closer to the bed and sat down. She took his hand as more tears went down her face. She lifted his hand to her face and kissed the inside of his palm, before setting it against her face. He could feel the tears roll down her face and onto his hand.

"You have been out for weeks ... t-the doctors said they had no idea how long you would be out for." His eyes widened, what had happened to him? What day was it? What month? He had opened his mouth to talk when Pearl started to talk some more, so he closed his lips. "I thought I had failed Rose ... I-we thought we lost you, Steven. It's my fault for bringing you along that mission, I should have been watching you better." Her voice was barely a whisper and he had to strain to hear what she was saying. He didn't remember getting hurt to the point of where he needed to be hospitalized. He didn't remember the mission she was talking about either.

"Mama ... where is mom? Why am I here? Why is everyone looking like I'm crazy when I mention this? You look like you have no idea what I am talking about." Her eyes looked like she was trying to process what he just said, her grip on his hand loosened only a bit.

"Steven ..." He had never heard her say his name so many times until today, she had always called him something else. "I'm not your mom..." Steven never thought it would hurt this much to hear those words. Was this how she felt when he used to tell her that? "Are you okay? Are you talking about Rose? Maybe you should get some rest. Your memory would probably come back." Yeah that seemed like a good idea to him, he closed his eyes and just laid there. Pearl never let go of his hand until she was for sure that he was resting. It wasn't until a couple of days later that they were able to release him, and they had released him to Greg which confused him even more.

Steven had noticed the change in his body when he was still in the hospital. He was much chubbier, and his hair was short and curly, not curly and long like usual. He had no stubble on his face and his voice sounded a bit childish, almost like puberty hasn't hit him. He was also really short compared to Pearl and the others. Steven didn't like it one bit.

In all honesty, if he had a choice he would have walked home then ride in the front seat of Greg's car. Yeah you could say they were somewhat close from where he was from, but he didn't like riding in the car with him. He stayed closer to the door then to Greg, and he was for sure he had noticed. "Are you okay, Son? Do you want to listen to some music?" He turned on the radio, and what came on horrified Steven to know ends. I know I'm not that tall. I know I'm not that smart. But let me drive my van into your heart. His ears felt like they were bleeding to the point where he reached over and shut the radio off.

"I'm sorry, but just no. I have no idea what that piece of shit music was, but no. My ears were starting to bleed from that crap." He was flung forward thankfully he had his seat belt on or he would have flown through the window. The seat belt did dig into his scar and his hissed out of pain, opening his eyes they were at the temple, but he could feel Greg's eyes on him.

"Steven Quartz Universe, you're fifteen years old, you do not ever say that word again. Do you understand me?" Steven looked at Greg confused. How high was he right now? His last name wasn't Universe, and sure hell he wasn't fifteen years old. He just rolled his eyes and got out of the van, leaving Greg behind and walking up the steps to the house. He walked through the front door hoping he would see the big pink lady standing there holding Pearl in her arms, happy to see that her baby boy was back home. But she wasn't there, he stood there in front of the door staring at Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl. But where were the others? Sapphire, Ruby, Matthias, and Jasper? Where was Lapis and Peridot? Where was Rose?

"Peridot and Lapis wanted to be here for your return, but they had things to do at the barn. So, they weren't able to make it ..." Steven walked in more when Pearl told him the news, but it didn't make sense. Where were the others?

"No, where is mother? Sapphire, Ruby? Where's Jasper and Matthias?" Pearl and Amethyst stared at each other while Garnet stood there her face expressionless as much as he was able to tell. "Why is it only you three? Why haven't I seen any of the others? What type of game are you playing with me? Are they out on a mission?" Greg finally walked into the house, he was waiting for Amethyst to jump in his arms, but she didn't move. She was staying rather close to Pearl instead.

Greg walked over to him and tried to put a hand on his shoulder which he slapped away. He walked over to the couch and sat down. This wasn't his home, these weren't his gems, and that wasn't Greg. "Steven, are you okay? Greg, did the doctors give him something before he left?" Pearl asked Greg, Steven watched them both wondering why Pearl was even talking to him in the first place. The last time he had knew it, she hated his guts. Amethyst joined him on the couch followed by Garnet. They all sat there in silence as Greg and Pearl talked about him like he wasn't even there.

"Is anyone going to tell me what's going on? Because the damn mood that I am in, I am not taking no for a goddamn answer."

Amethyst looked shocked at the language he had used and he rolled his eyes. He had heard her say so much worse than the word damn. "Look, Steven, I don't know how hard you hit your head, but you need to quit with the attitude, lil'man. Before you get a smack in your mouth and I know for sure, neither Garnet or Pearl would care if I took the matters in my own hands." He stared at her dead in the eyes as his narrowed. Did she really threaten him?

"Once I find mom, I'm going to tell her you threatened me. She is going to lock you up in your room again. I hope you realized this." He told her, and Amethyst's face fell that got her for sure. Maybe this was his world after all and they are all just playing a sick joke on him. Oh how he was wrong.

"Steven ... are you talking about Rose?" her voice sounded like she was about to cry. She looked at Garnet than at Pearl. "Dude, this isn't funny. Cut it out, alright?" Cut what out? He closed his eyes and took a deep breath in to let his anger subside. This family was pissing him off more and more. He opened his eyes back up and popped his chubby fingers.

"Cut what out? What am I freaking doing? All I want to know where is my mom, and the others. Just tell me, is Matthias at a fight? You can tell me. You can tell me that Jasper is out taking pictures for her career. You can tell me mom, Sapphire and Ruby are on a mission. Why won't you tell me anything?"

"Because there is nothing to tell, Steven ..." Garnet finally spoken up. "Rose ... is gone ... you know this. She has been gone for fifteen years. Jasper is bubbled up." Garnet paused for a second and gave Pearl a look who just shook her head, "And definitely do not know who this Matthias is. As well as I am here." His heart dropped into his stomach. What are they trying to tell him ... what was going on here? He heard a sob coming to his left, he saw his mama crying and it broke him. He didn't know why it broke him as he never really felt like this in awhile. But he got up anyway and walked over to Pearl and wrapped his arms around her waist, resting his head on her stomach. He didn't know what to think about all of this. He didn't know if he should believe them or not.

He didn't want to believe that he wasn't back of safely in his world. He didn't want to believe that his mom was gone, and he didn't believe that Pearl wasn't his mama either. Pearl slowly wrapped her arms around him as well and he stayed in her arms as long as he was able to. He hasn't felt this much affection from her in a while. He had forgotten how much he had missed her love, missed being touch, miss just having affection. He didn't know why, but he felt like crying. He was scared, he didn't know where he was. Everything looked the same, but everything wasn't the same. He pulled away from Pearl, and folded his hands, "I want to apologize for being such a dick to you all, but you have to realize that I'm just scared ... I have only been here for a little while, but I want you all to know, that I do not think this is my world." 

"I know." Garnet was the first to speak, he looked over at her as she got up off the couch and took off her visors. "I didn't want to say anything, just in case I was wrong. I knew the moment you walked into that front door that you were not our Steven. You walked in here like you were a little badass." His cheeks turned slightly red, did he really walk like that. He turned his head to the side again to see Amethyst laughing way harder than she should be.   
  
"I noticed that, I thought maybe he was a little stiff from the hospital, but as I think of it. It's kind of funny to be honest." Once she stopped laughing her face instantly got serious. "Except if he isn't our Steven, then what happened to ours? How could this even have happened when he was only struck from a gem shard from the corrupted gem?" Amethyst walked over to him and they were the same height, he hated it. Back home, he could easily tower over her. Greg has been quiet throughout the whole thing, Steven had almost forgotten that he was even there in the first place.

When Steven finally looked over at him, he made a noise like he wanted to talk. "Wait ... are you trying to tell me this isn't my son?" He asked, and Steven narrowed his eyes. He hated to hear those words come out of his mouth, that he was "his son." He gathered as much that in this universe he was his son, but it didn't make things better for him. From what he experienced, Greg wasn't a guy who did drugs in this universe, and he loved his son. But he still hated him even if he was a good guy. "Where the hell is my son, if this isn't him? He looks like Steven, oh god, I am not liking this. Gems, where is my son?" Greg started to freak out.

"Well, you see ... that might have been my fault ..." He whispered a little shamefully. "See ... what had happened was that when I was in a ring ... um long story short, I work for Greg in my universe as a street fighter ..." There was silence and he felt extremely uncomfortable, he looked down at his hands. "Yeah, um, my moms don't like it either, anyway, I had won the fight, after I was pretty bruised up, the prize though was five hundred dollars, and some guy had bet a necklace in there as well. The necklace had an apatite gem inside of it, like a little shit I was," Pearl kicked his leg and he bit his lip from kicking back. "I'm sorry like the curious person I was, removed the gem from the necklace, she was able to "grant" me a wish." He didn't want to tell them that some guy had also offered him drugs which he did take. "I wished I was somewhere far from my home ..." 

Part of him knew that somehow it wasn't only the gem who did this to him, he thinks it might have been part of the drugs fault too. He didn't know how, but the feeling in his gut told him so. He watched as Pearl and Garnet exchanged looks, Garnet then put back on her visors before looking at Amethyst and she nodded towards them. They knew something, but didn't want to tell him. "Why did you want to leave your home, Steven?" It was Greg who asked, "And why was I even putting you through street fighting? I said like a terrible dad."

"Well, you see, you were a meth user ... and I ... um ... got involved with that and the rush of the fighting made me forget how much pain I was in from my daily life. It's not easy over there ... yeah sure, I had a family, people who loved me ... but I never really got to see any one over there. I mean, I got to see Ruby and Sapphire all the time, along with Pearl a lot. Except, Rose was always out because she was busy all the time, and Jasper was out taking pictures. I had Matthias, he's my best friend, does a lot of street fighting with me. He's a tourmaline you know." Even if Garnet had told him that they didn't know who Matthias was, the look on their faces every time he had mention him, told him that they were lying. Even Greg seemed to know who Matthias was. "Also ... you are not my dad where I come from ... you're just a sperm donor."

Garnet motioned him to continue his story, Amethyst had sat down on the coffee table while Pearl and Greg sat down on the couch. It was only him and Garnet who remained standing. "Though, Matthias usually hangs out with Peridot and Lapis at the barn. Peridot, he's always busy, and he doesn't like me that much ..." He was soon cut off by Amethyst, he sighed.

"Wait ... wait ... did you call Peridot a male?!"

He nodded, "Yeah, Peridot is a male in my universe, is he not in this one?" The gems shook their heads. "Well, that's going to take some time getting used to. Anyway, like I was saying, and then things started to go downhill more ... when ... when ..." He took a big gulp of air, when tears started to fill his eyes as he thought about Connie. He wished he had done her better and was there for her when she needed him the most. He hated how he wasn't mature enough to stop what he was doing, if he had just thought about other people, she would still be with him to this day. The door suddenly sung open, there stood Connie Maheswaran, with his moms sword strapped to her back. 

His heart started to sped up, her smile was bright and so beautiful. She looked like she did when she was younger back in his universe. Tears fell down his face as he watched her beautiful face stare at him. She ran over to him and gave him the tightest hug, there was a massive pain that shot through his body, but he bit his lip and held it in. He just stood there frozen, smelling her strawberry shampoo. He want to hug her back so bad, but his body wouldn't move. She was alive in this universe. Of course she was. When she finally pulled away her smiling face, drew into a frown. "Why are you crying?" She reached up and wiped the tears from his face.

 "U-Um, erm ..." He was lost for words as he looked her up and down, trying to comprehend the fact that she was really here with him that this wasn't his imagination. "I-it just good to see you is all." He finally managed to say.

"Steven, finish your story." Amethyst said a little impatience in her voice, "It's also very good to see you, Connie. Steven, here was telling us why he wasn't our Steven." Connie looked at him shocked before looking over at Amethyst, "Long story short, this Steven is from a different world who had wished to get away, so they accidentally changed places."

Connie looked at him up and down, walking over to the gems sitting down next to Pearl and Greg after taking off his moms sword leaving it down at her feet. "So cool! So, where did you leave off?" He didn't think he should continue where he left off, it was now uncomfortable when Connie was there, but the gems wanted to know and he didn't feel like lying to them.

"Everything went down here, when Connie had killed herself." Gasps went everywhere and he regretted that ever coming out of his mouth. Maybe he shouldn't have put it that bluntly when Connie was sitting right there and barely knew the whole story. Way to go Steven, another fucking mistake you made. You're a stupid ass.

The house was silent as everyone took in what was just said. He was more worried with what was Connie thinking after he said that. "What did I walk into?" Connie asked complete horror was masked on her face, he felt terrible he didn't want her to hear that at least not that bluntly. "So, are you trying to tell us ... one of my alternative selves ... c-committed suicide?" Steven nodded, twiddling his thumbs as a comfort thing. "Why ...?"

"I rather not discuss that with you ..." He mumbled. "How about we change the subject ..." Connie was going to protest more when mama put a hand on her shoulder shaking her head, she slumped down with her arms crossed over her chest. "In my world, mom and god this is going to sound weird, Pearl, I'm so used to calling my Pearl mama. Mom and Pearl are together, they are married, it was such a gorgeous wedding. Greg, at that universe was just the sperm donor, like I said before, but he was in love with mom. That's why I kept calling ... Pearl ... mama." 

"Wait, slow down here, hand me the phone." Pearl's cheeks were dark blue, "You are all over the place slow down, Steven. Let me get this straight, Rose and I in your universe are your mothers? We are legally married by earth standards? And Greg over there was a donor for us, but is in love with Rose?" He nodded slowly, "And Rose in that universe, didn't have to give up her physical form to give birth to you?" He shook his head.

"That's right, I still have a rose quartz gem embedded in me though, we never truly understood how that was possible, but it happened. And I have all the gem powers, I think I just inherited from mom." He shrugged and yawned. "That's about it, except that Jasper joined the Crystal Gems and is currently fucking my best friend."  

"STEVEN!" Pearl and Greg both said in unison. Amethyst started laughing, Connie covered her ears, and Garnet was staring right at him, he couldn't tell what she was thinking. Maybe she was furious he had cursed too. Pearl and Greg looked at each other their cheeks different colors before they started to laugh as well. He thinks he was going to like it here, he wonder how the other Steven was doing with his problems over there. He hopes he was taking everything well, he felt bad that he did this without thinking more upon it. It was a bit weird after explaining everything to them, especially after Greg had left, and the gems had a "mission", but in reality he thought they just wanted to discuss everything by themselves. They had left him and Connie alone together at the temple, there was a blanket of awkward silence. 

"Hey, do you want to go to the barn with me?" Connie bit her lip and shook her head. "Ah, come on it would be fun." He grabbed her hand and pulled her up off the couch. "Break a couple of rules, Connie. Don't be such a tight ass." She bit her lip, the look on her face told him she wanted to tell him to watch his mouth, that it wasn't okay to use that word. However, she had held back from doing that.

"The Gems ... they would be pretty upset if we just left with no warning ..." She had bit her lip harder, and it was kind of cute to him. His Connie would always bite her lip as well, but it was for a somewhat different reason. "I mean ... like what if something happened at the barn, and ..." He pulled her close to his body, his mouth close to her ear.

"Stop, being a tight ass, just bring mom's sword with you if you are so afraid." He pulled away once he felt a slight shudder down her spine. He couldn't tell if she was creeped out or liked it. "'Let's go! Connie ... let's have some fun for once, do you even know what the feeling is? The feeling to be free and not go by any rules? The feeling of disobeying someone and having fun?" He smirked as she looked him dead in the eyes, hers were full of different emotions flickering through. Determination, guilt, uneasiness, so many more that I couldn't catch them all.

Connie looked over at the temple door, biting her lip again, this time drawing blood. She looked back over at him, before looking back at the door.  _Just hurry and choose already._ He thought getting impatient, she then grabbed his hand and squeezed, an uneasy smile was plastered on her face. "Yeah ... sure, Steven, lets go to the barn. I would love to visit Lapis anyway. See if she has any new meep morps."


	5. Chapter Four

**Our Steven**

"Steven, are you okay?" Garnet's hands went to his shoulders, helping him up. "Maybe you are not okay." She helped him over to the bench and sat him down. "You're acting like this is the first time you have heard the news." Because it was the first time he had heard it, this here gave him the realization this definitely wasn't his universe. He needed to get back as soon as he could. He didn't think that he could handle this universe at all. "Let's get back to the temple,I'll tell Jamie I'll get a rain check on that date."

Steven shook his head and stood up. "I'll go back by myself, go back to Jamie." He mumbled and walked away without another word. He kept walking and he didn't know where his legs were taking him, but he somehow ended back at the temple without realizing it. He walked into the temple to see Pearl sitting on the couch, he dropped to his knees. She was in there in a flash. "Is she really dead?" He whispered as more tears started to fall down his face.

"Who are you talking about, sweetheart? Where have you been?" She asked him, he moved so now he was sitting on the floor with his knees to his chest. "Is Connie really gone?" She pulled me into a hug, she made quiet shushing noise, rocking me back and forth. Pearl started to rub his back up and down. He heard the door of the temple opening and closing before soft footsteps walked up the stairs. When Steven pulled away from Pearl a bit to see who it was, he saw that it was his mom.

"What's going on here? Is my boy okay?" She asked softly, and he shook his head pulling away from Pearl."Oh, sweetie, what's wrong? Pearl, what's wrong?" He looked at her, to see her mouth 'Connie.' He then looked over at his mom, a look of grief washed over her face. "I see." Rose walked over to him, and helped him up and over to the couch, she held him in her arms for good ten minutes.

"How?" He finally asked, they looked at him confused. "How did she die? What happened to her?" Pearl put a hand on his shoulder, and squeezed it.

He shrugged it off. "Steven, you know how she died. Are you sure you are doing okay? I mean, she has been gone for almost a year." Almost a year? Connie has been gone for almost a year in this universe. Was it his fault? Did he do this to her? He stood up off the couch, and walked over to the door. His back was turned away from the other two, "Where are you going?" he was asked.

"I'm going to Connie's grave … there is still about an hour of sunlight left. I know I'm grounded, but I want to go see her." A hand was on suddenly on his shoulder, tight and firm. He turned around and saw Matt. "Let me go." How the hell did he sneak up on him like that?

"I overheard you all talking. This is really unhealthy, Steven. Is this why you have been acting so strange lately? Being with a bad crowd? Doing bad things because you were missing Connie?" He asked him. "It's slightly your fault on why she died. I think you realized this. Now you feel guilty and blaming yourself. How about we all gather around the living room and discuss it?" Slightly his fault? No it wasn't his fault, it was the other Steven's fault. Shaking his head, his grabbed Matt's hand and flipped him over his shoulder.

He crouched down looking him in the face as the gem groaned. "Hope you learned your lesson to never put your hands - on me." He snapped, he wasn't in the right right mental state to be touched and criticized by someone he barely knew. He never would have acted like this where he was from, and he didn't know why he was acting like this snow. Maybe it was just because he was in a new place and he was feeling hostile, it was also the fact that he had just heard his best friend was dead. And he was being blamed for it.

Without another word from anyone, he walked out the front door and whistled for Lion. He hasn't seen him since he got here. Lion jumped down from the roof and landed next to Steven rubbing up against him. Instead of the normal pink color, Lion was actually a light blue color. He jumped on the back of Lion, the moment the front door opened to Pearl and Rose. "Steven, get your butt down from there. Leon, do not think of disobeying me. If your feet move an inch off of this porch you will not get that treat tonight." Did Pearl just call Lion Leon? Was that what his name was here? Steven Patted the feline's head, whispered something in his ear. Lion or Leon ignored Pearl completely by jumping off the balcony.

The both of them ran across the beach before Leon did his sonic roar opening up a portal and jumped through it. He held tightly on the lion's beautiful mane burying his face in his fur, when he looked up he wasn't where he asked Lion to go. They stood in the front yard of Connie's house. "This isn't where I asked to go, Lion." He sighed and got off the giant Lion's back, he could feel his heart pounding in his chest and his palms felt sweaty. He didn't know what he was going to say or why he was going to do this, but he walked up to the front door and knocked. Waiting for a few moments, someone finally answered. He was slightly hoping it was Connie, thinking maybe she didn't actually die. Instead it was Dr. Maheswaran with a look of irritation on her face.

"Hi, Dr. Maheswaran, is Connie here? I will come back tomorrow if she's gone for the rest of the day." His voice quivered only slightly, but his voice was the sweetest as it can be with a smile on his face. However, it feel when she gave him the look of disgust.

"Is this some kind of joke?" She asked me. "Didn't I tell you to never show your face around here again? You are the one who caused my daughter's death. I had told you at her funeral, and I will tell you again. Never show your face around these parts again. I knew you were trouble when I first saw you. Now scram, you ungrateful little prick." There were tears running down her face, when she slammed the door in his face. He felt more anger than hurt, clenching his fists he turned around and head back towards Leon. In the corner of his eye, he saw a tall figure running towards him. Matt. How did he know that he would be here? Why did he even follow him in the first place?

"Finally, I caught up with you. I need to talk to you, Steven. Please don't run away again." He was going to touch him again before Steven had jumped on Leon. "No! Steven! Wait, please! Stop doing this to yourself!" He called after him as Leon started to run and jump through the portal. Before it closed he had heard Matt cussing to himself. Leon jumped out of the portal and they were on the light house hill. Why were they here? Jumping off of Leon, he soon found out why they were at the lighthouse, he actually took him to Connie's grave this time. Steven never expected in a million of years her parents who actually bury her up here. This was one of Connie's favorite places in the world. They had such good times here on the hill.

He slowly walked over to the grave that was covered in flowers, and a picture of Connie's beautiful face leaning up against the grave. She was older in here, her face was thinner all the baby fat was out, and her eyes shone so much in that picture. He sat in front of the grave basically on top of her if you asked anyone else. He read the tombstone,  _Here lies Connie Maheswaran. The best daughter, Jam Buddy and Crystal Gem that ever lived. September 13th, 2001 - October 19th, 2017._ Underneath was the Crystal Gems logo. He swallowed hard, "How did you die,Connie? What did he do to cause your death?" He asked out loud like she would answer him. "I already miss you so much, even if you are not my Connie. The fact that you are dead in this in this universe upset me."

He heard quiet footsteps approach him, he closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. If it was that Tourmaline gem, he was going to throw him off the cliff. Instead, a large figure sat down next to him, "Steven, honey." It was his mom, Rose and her sweet voice that sounded like honey to his ears. "Are you doing okay?" He shook his head, "Do you want to talk about it?" He nodded, but not looking her in the eyes or in her direction, he stared at the grave in front of him. His hands were folded in his lap and his legs were crossed together as he sat up straight.

"Can you tell me ... what exactly happened to her? My mind is quite foggy at the moment. And I want to hear it from you." They had sat there for a long time in silence, her voice was barely a whisper as she explained to him what had happened. Leon sat next to him on his other side laying his giant head in his lap.

"Connie killed herself almost a year ago." Rose looked out in the distant towards the horizon as the sun was setting, "Ever since you started to hang out with Greg more, you have been nothing but rude to everyone especially her. You wouldn't take her out on dates, you wouldn't pay attention to her. She stopped talking to us, stopped taking sword fighting lessons from Pearl. She just stopped everything. We noticed her decline in health, she got depressed, but you were too caught up with your selfish games and partying to care anymore." They sat there longer after the story was told, his clenched Leon's fur tightly holding back all the anger he felt towards himself.

"Thank you for reminding me, mom." He was numb again and tired, all he wanted to do was go lay down and sleep for days to come. He wanted to cry, but no tears were shed and thoughts kept running through his head. Why would he do something to her like that? How could he be so cruel to a person he loved? There was so many questions but no answers to them, his mom sat there as he stood back up with Leon and climbing back on top of him. "Are you coming along?" He asked and she shook her head. Nodding once, him and Leon went back to the beach house.

When he had got to the beach house, no one was there other than Pearl and Matt. They had tried to talk to him, but he drowned them out as he walked up to his loft. Taking his shoes off, he slipped into bed and instantly was blanketed with sleep. That night he had dreamed of Connie. He dreamed of back home. He dreamed of running down a long back hallway that always ever seemed like it was getting longer and longer. There was a light in the distance and he could see  _his_  Connie, and  _his_ gems, but he never reached them. Instead, the hallway became the field of the mission he was on just a couple of days ago. He was running and running, then he was struck with the shard in his chest, he felt the blood run down his body like the night it happened.

"No, Rose, I have as much authority as you do over, Steven. He isn't going to be ungrounded and let outside, especially not what he did yesterday." He was woken up by the arguing of his parents down in the living room. "He hasn't done any of his homework either. Are you really just going to let it slide?" Steven got up out of bed, he looked down to still see him wearing the outfit from yesterday. That's right, he never changed. Shrugging, he slipped back his shoes and headed into the bathroom. He could still hear the arguing from inside.

"Pearl, listen to me. He has been through enough, grounding him is only going to make things worse." Rose tried to reason with Pearl, "Look, if he gets into anymore trouble then we'll actually ground him. He's getting to be almost eighteen years old, soon he won't be our baby boy. He needs to grow. Steven walked out of the bathroom. What time was it anyway? Was it really necessary to argue so much?

He cleared his throat and both of them stopped arguing to look at him. "What are you fighting about?" He was tried still and numb from the day earlier about Connie's death. "What time is it anyway? How long did I sleep?" He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and went over to the fridge grabbing a water from the top shelf.

"You have been sleeping all day, it's five, sweetheart." Steven did a spit take of his water. How was did he even sleep that long in the first place? Why did they let him sleep that long? He grabbed some paper towels and cleaned up the water mess as Rose continued to talk. "We weren't fighting, we were discussing a matter in a civil way." Steven after he was done cleaning up the mess, he walked over to the couch and sat down.

"Sounded like fighting to me." He told them cocking an eyebrow towards their way. There was then a banging on the door, loud and firm. He heard someone mumbling behind the door, then banging again. Who could it be this late? He got up and answered to find Greg about to knock again. He looked different from his dad at home. He had a full set of hair on his head which was pulled back into a ponytail. His face was sunken in, and he smelled like he hasn't taken a shower in a week. His clothes were clean though like they just got out of the dryer. He was going to shut the door on him, when he pushed passed and walked straight over to Rose and Pearl. "It's Friday, we agreed I can take him every Friday. So, now let me have my son."

Rose looked down at Greg with a look of disgust. Her face showed like she was rethinking her situation and whatever she had previously told him. "You are not his dad, Greg. You are a sperm donor, nothing less and nothing more. And you only want him when you want something from him. So, what do you want from him?" Pearl spoke up before Rose had a chance, she sounded annoyed.

"Push off, bitch. It's none of your business." Snapped Greg, he pushed her aside to look up at Rose. Steven clenched his jaw and walked over to Greg grabbing his shoulder and pushing him back from Pearl and Rose.

"Look, you do not come into my house and talk to my moms like that. Do you understand?" He got into his face. Technically, he had to look down at the face of this disgusting man. He didn't flinch one bit, just get a sneering look in return. "You shouldn't even lay a damn finger on her, ever again. If you are going to act like that towards her, then you can push off, Greg. I'm not going to go with you if you act like that towards them. I want you to apologize to them now or I am going to throw you out of this house." Greg's pupils were wide, he was definitely on some type of drug.

Greg turned around to face Pearl, they looked at each other, before he avoided her eyes. He held out his hand for her to shake. Pearl grabbed a towel and grabbed his hand. "I am sorry for calling you a bitch, you have as much right to say whatever you want as Rose. I should be more considering to your feelings." They shook hands and he turned back around to face Steven. "Are you coming with me now, if your moms say you can?" Steven felt like he did want to use him for something with the glint in his eyes, and the slight twitch of his body he has been noticing since he came.

Pearl and Rose looked at each other, a look of uncertainty on their faces. They looked back at him before he shrugged, and Rose sighed. "Yes, but he comes back in two hours. If he is gone even a minute late, I will send Jasper after to get him. You remember Jasper from last time, don't you?" The look of terror on Greg's face says he does. Steven wondered what happened last time. Greg nodded rather quickly. "Good. Steven, behave. You do not do anything that is wrong. Do you understand me? Do you want your punishment to extend?" He shook my head. "Good boy. Now go get on a jacket and you can go."

He hugged both of his moms and told them that he would be back in the right time. Not a minute later. He went and grabbed his jacket when he had to side step or he would have been knocked down by Amethyst running out of the temple. She hopped into Greg's arms and they shared a kiss which made him want to puke. "Hey!" Snapped Pearl. "Not this in my house. After that mess I found in the temple, you are no longer able to do that here." She pulled them apart, "Especially in front of Steven of all people. Amethyst go back to your room."

"No I am going with them." Amethyst grabbed Greg's hand and pulled him out of the house before Rose and Pearl had a say about it. He looked at them and shrugged.

"I'll keep an eye out on them." He followed the two out of the door, down to the van, and opening the back doors. It was a freaking mess in here, like why more than he was used too. He was careful to avoid the needles and climb over the seat, strapping himself in. He waited for Greg to start the car, but he was to busy making out with Amethyst. "Let's go." He snapped, Amethyst pulled away and looked back at him before strapping in her seat belt. He had stopped paying attention to them when Greg's hand kept trying to touch Amethyst.

They made it to the old beaten up warehouse with the massive hole in it and parked in the back. He unbuckled and quickly got out of the van, the other two followed suit. Greg walked over to him and tried to touch his shoulder, but he stepped back. "Do you remember the plan, Steven?" he asked him.

He looked at him confused. "What plan?" he ad asked him and he sighed angrily. He sure wasn't impressed with him. Well, buddy he wasn't impressed with him either.

"The plan, you let him get in a few punches, before knocking the shit out of him. That way I can get my money and my dope back." Steven's jaw went slack, he wanted him to fight? Was he crazy? He didn't know any hand to hand combat at least not that well. Greg slapped him on the back before pushing him through the back door of the warehouse. They were met by a huge black guy in black shirt and black pants. This event must be pretty bad if there was a bodyguard. "Universe." Greg said and the bodyguard moved aside to let the three of them in. His palms were sweaty and his heart was beating fast.

The three of them went to another back room where they were met by Marty? What was he doing here? "Star Child!" He went over to Steven and put his hands-on his shoulders. "Are you ready to kick some ass?" He shook his head and Marty chuckled. "Ah ha. Nice one, kid. Greg went over the plan with you, right?" He nodded. "Good, you are up in five. Cotton Candy is up there, right now, he will be out soon. He has been kicking ass. I would like if you could be doing the same." Marty was talking fast, and he was twitching. His eyes were dilated like Greg's. He was high as well. "Do you want a boost before going up there?" He grabbed out a little container, and I shook my head quickly guessing what it might be. He put it away and nodded.

Time went by quickly, when Steven heard the announcers that Cotton Candy had won the match. Steven was sitting on a bench alone, Marty, Amethyst, and Greg went off somewhere to do something that he didn't want to get involved with. "Next up, we have a very special guest, here comes AIR RAID!" The announcer called on the guy who he was up against. The crowd cheered and roared. Steven heard footsteps and he quickly stood up thinking it was Greg or one of them, but no it wasn't either of them.

Matt Tourmaline.

His blue face was black and bloody. His left eye was swollen shut, and his lip was swollen and bloody. His knuckles were bruised as well. His eye that wasn't swollen was wide with shock as he saw him "No. You cannot be here. Why are you here?" He turned his face and spit some blood out of his mouth before looking back at Steven. "Did Greg pull you along? Do you remember what happened last time? Pearl and Rose said you cannot be here anymore. Go before they call your name." He tried to push Steven out of here when the others came back.

"Cotton Candy, let Steven go." Marty was talking fast again as he went over to Tourmaline, putting a hand on his shoulder. "It is time for Steven to go up there and fight." Matt shrugged off Marty's hand turning around and facing him.

"Do you think I am going to let a seventeen-year old boy go out there and face Air Raid? Are you all mental? You know how bad Air Raid is. No, I am not doing it. Steven, we are going home." Matt turned his head again and spit blood out of his mouth. He grabbed his hand when the announcers came on the intercom again.

"Now, here is what you have been waiting for. The famous Crystal Gem!" The crowd cheered Steven on more than they did the Air Raid. Marty grabbed him by the arm and away from Matt's grip taking him over to the ramp. "The Crystal Gem!" He called again. He looked over at Matt who shook his head and looked away from the boy. Steven sighed and pulled away from Marty before running up the ramp. Why the hell was he even doing this? The crowd cheered as he pumped his fists up in the air. It was almost like a reflex, he didn't understand why he did it. It was like his body was moving on his own. There was no stage just a crowd of people surrounding a small area a guy was jumping up and down near the far side. His face was covered up in a gray hoodie and blue bandana, so Steven wasn't able to tell who it was.

While the opponent of his was fully dressed, Steven was only wearing pink gym shorts and his converse. He had no shirt on, so he was showing off the scars that he had and the pink quartz gem on his stomach. "You know the rules, no eye poking, kicks to groins, no weapons, and no fowl language. Other than that, the fight will start the moment the bell rings." The announcer's mic went up in the air and he moved into the crowd away from the fighters.

He heard Air Raid snicker, "what a pathetic child you are." Steven laughed at the comment, a pathetic child, he could obviously tell they were the same height. The voice had also sounded really feminine. He didn't want to go up a girl, he wasn't going to hit her if that was the case. They circled each other, his body doing the thing again where he had no control or more like he knew what he was doing. Maybe muscle memory? The bell suddenly went off and Air Raid went in for the punch, he knew the plan Greg gave him, but he had ducked out of instinct and his fist went flying missing the person in front of him by inches. What was he doing? He never even been in one of this fights before. He never been in a hand in hand combat fight at that.

They circled each other again, she went in for another blow hitting him with a jab. It was fast and straight punch, it was thrown with the lead hand while her rear hand was held at the face in the guard position. She was making boxing moves in a street fight, who was she? More so how did he even know any of this? When he was occupied with trying to figure this out, she went in for a lower punch at his stomach. He had doubled over in pain spitting out blood from his mouth, she had waited for him to stand back up. He wanted to win badly in this fight mostly to prove to Matt that he was able to take care of himself. His feet moved on their own, they go closer together when she went in for another punch he manage to duck under and hit her in the kidney then elbow her in the back bringing her down on her knees.

He stood there breathing heavily the crowd was cheering and his eyes were wide. How the hell did he even know how to do that? Adrenaline went through his veins as he was getting pumped up ready for some more, it was like his body needed this. It wanted it. It was like a drug to him. He held his stance, feet apart, his arms were in defense mood. When she got back up, she looked at him, he could see her eyes looking him up and down trying to find an opening for her to strike. Steven let his guard down a bit with his thoughts once again, she had managed to swipe down with her legging making him trip. She brought her fist up to his chin and did an uppercut, he fell on his back with a groan. He had to lay there for a minute, the referee started to count, but he quickly jumped back up on his feet.

Blood filled his mouth as he spit it out to the side of him. "That was pretty good, it's like you knew I would have that opening." He called out to her and smirked. "Come on, I still have some fight in me." He gestured with his hand for her to come forward, which she did. When her fist came towards him, the world seemed to slow down as his lead hand grabbed the fist twisted her arm then his body flinging her behind him. "I'm not a pathetic child, Air Raid. I am Crystal Gem. You might be a girl, but I don't go easy." He said standing in front of her, he was breathing heavily and he had to spit blood out of his mouth once again.

The girl groaned, "Call a truce? She whispered, he held out his hand to help her up, but his guard was up just in case if she tried to play a tricky move on him. She grabbed it and he helped her up, no tricky move was made. The crowd cheered, clapped, and called out his name. It felt so good, the rush of everything. The way his body moved, the way he even knew how to fight at all.

"Truce." He told her and the announcer grabbed his hand lifting it up. "We have a winner, everybody! The mighty Crystal Gem!" His face was swelling up and he could feel some of his teeth might have been loose, but not bad enough to fall out. He walked away from the crowd with Air Raid falling him. They went to the back where Greg grabbed him up and hugged him tightly. He winced at the pain that shot through the body.

"That was amazing. Great job. Are you ready for next Friday?" He asked and Steven shook his head. "Why not?"

"I am retiring. My face hurts and you need to learn to not use me to get drugs and money. You are just a dirtbag." Steven snapped at him a look of anger overwashed his face, he raised his fist ready to strike me, when Amethyst came in and grabbed his wrist twisting it. Amethyst didn't look to well when she came in front of him, her clothes were slightly misplaced and her hair was a mess. What had happened when he was away?

"You do not put a hand-on, Steven. I do not tolerate that, Greg. He is my family, I might be a bitch to him sometimes, but I love him. I do not love you. You are nothing more than a human fuck you. Good that we established that because we are through." Amethyst snapped before she grabbed his hand walking out of the warehouse. He was able to look back for a sec and motion Air Raid to follow them. When they were out of the warehouse, Amethyst fell on her knees crying. Steven bent down and held her in his arms. He had never seen Amethyst break down like this before what happened. After awhile Amethyst stood up and shook her head, her whole body was shaking. She would tell him when she wanted too in the meantime she didn't seem to want to talk about it.

He turned and faced Air Raid, "Take your hood and bandana off, I want to see your face." He told her, she was reluctant, but she did it anyway. Underneath, was cyan skin and blue chin-length hair arranged in a bun. The girl that was standing in front of him was no other than Lapis Lazuli.


	6. Chapter Five

He was fighting Lapis Lazuli this entire time? He would have never guessed that it was her this entire time. He stared at the blue gem in front of him before Amethyst tapped his shoulder, turning around he stared at her questioningly. “It’s time to go, bud. We have twenty minutes until we have to be at the house. We don’t want Rose and Pearl freaking out if you’re late.” He nodded then looked at Lapis who was quiet, he hasn’t heard her speak since fight.

“Do you still live at the barn?” He asked her and she nodded, “I’mma come by tomorrow then. I haven’t been there in awhile.” It seems like she doesn’t talk much in this world, she nodded once again. Steven watched as she took off the gray hoodie to reveal herself in only a light blue sports bra, his cheeks turned red and quickly turned away. When he looked back, Lapis was in the hair with her water wings extended. She flew off after a minute he looked back down at Amethyst, “How are we supposed to get back?”

Amethyst got a mischievous look on her face, he watched as she looked over at Greg’s van. “That’s how. Come on, Steven.” She grabbed his hand and pulled in towards the van. Amethyst got into the driver’s seat while he sat in the passenger’s seat, her feet couldn’t even touch the pedals. “Oh, shit.” She shrugged and a bright light formed, when it dimmed she had shape shifted. She was now taller than she was before so she was able to reach the pedals. “Now it’s just managing to learn how to drive this thing.” _This wasn’t going to end well for us._ Steven thought as he made sure his seat belt was tight around him.  

Another few minutes went by the clock was ticking down. He didn’t know how much time he had left until he had to be home. He didn’t want to get into any more trouble than he already was when they see how badly bruised he was. He gripped the edges of the seat trying to hold on his for his dear life when Amethyst finally figured out how to drive the van. “A-Amethyst … slow down!” The van was going past its limits of speed and she was serving everywhere. He closed his eyes as  the motion sickness was fighting for control. When they finally had stopped, he got out of the van and heaved out whatever he had in his stomach. “N-no more … never again.” He leaned against the van with his hand on his forehead.

“Ew! Gross, man!” Amethyst kicked stand over the vomit. “Anyway, we’re home. Just in time too.” She gave him her signature smile before her face fell. “Dude  … we forgot your clothes at the rink. You can’t hide those bruises.” He looked down and groaned. She was right, they were going to kill him. Especially when they see his face. Scooting closer to the front of the van, he sat down in the sand, his head was spinning and his whole body throbbed with pain. His hands were pretty bruised and bloody as well. Amethyst sat down next to him with her legs folded to her chest and her face rested on her knees as she stared at him. “You should go inside before you get yelled at.” She was right, but he turned and looked at her instead of going inside.

“Were you okay? Back at the warehouse I mean. You broke down crying … and I didn’t want to ask you in front of Lapis. We’re alone now … so you can tell me.” His voice was full of kindness which made Amethyst wonder what type of drug his has been on for the last few days. He was just so different in such a short period of time. Any other day, Steven wouldn’t even care what she was going through or feeling. It was always about himself now he was always about others around him. They just looked at each other as Amethyst tried to find the right words to describe what happened back there.

Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and let it out. “I should have seen that he was using me.” She took in another shay breath as her hands started to shake. “He was using me like so many other people. I should have known he was like the others, but only worse.” Steven put a swollen hand on her shoulder, she takes a hand of her own and wipes away the tears that were starting to slip out.  “I thought he loved me, Steven, honest to God I thought he did. He only wanted me for sex, drugs, and to get closer to you.”

Steven watched her for a little before he spoke up, “He’s a douchebag, Ame, it’s alright you made a mistake. We all make mistakes every once in awhile.” He wrapped an arm around her giving her a half hug, she returned it when she gently wrapped an arm around him. “You can do so much better than him. I know you can. Let’s get back inside before the others think we’re lost.” She chuckled as they both got up, she guess Steven wasn’t such a dick after all. He actually had some good in him, maybe someday she tell him what happened to her back in the warehouse when he was fighting. Someday. Supporting on and another with their arms wrapped around each other they walked up the steps to the beach house. Just in time too, Jasper was walking out the front door when they took the last step up the stairs. 

Jasper looked at them both before opening the door, “Pearl! Rose! He’s back. And he doesn’t look so good either.” She stepped aside to let them in through the door, Rose and Pearl were in the living room. Pearl looked distressed and Rose looked pissed to all ends. The door closed behind them and Jasper went and sat down on the couch with one leg crossed over the other, a smirk was plastered on her face.

“What happened to you?!” Pearl ran over to Steven looking him up and down, Amethyst moved to the side to get away from Pearl. She walked over to Jasper and joined her on the couch, they exchanged a few words before watching Steven and Pearl. “Steven, answer me now.”

“Greg, took Steven to The Diamond Fighting Rink. He went up against Air Raid aka Lapis who beat the living shit out of him.” Amethyst told them. “Matthias tried to stop him from going, but you know how stubborn that boy can be.” _Was she talking about Matt? Was that his real name?_ Steven thought, just as the front door opened once again. Steven turned around with the protest of Pearl to watch as Matt walked through the door and closing it behind him. He was wearing a army green tank top and black basketball shorts, he had a gym bag slung across his shoulder. His left eye was swollen shut, and his lip was swollen as well, his nose was also broken. Matt set down his bag down near the closet and walked over to Jasper who stood up to greet him.

“Babe, your face looks like crap.” She mumbled and lightly touched his face, he flinched at the touch. “Sorry …” She mumbled and walked around him to the bathroom where she got the medical kit from. “Sit down and let me work on you. Please.” Jasper was so kind and it weirded Steven out so bad. This wasn’t the Jasper he knew at all. He watched at Matthias struggled while getting worked on, once Jasper moved away he noticed that his eye was bandaged up. Steven wondered why Matt didn’t just have Rose heal him.

“Matthias Tourmaline.” Pearl called with her hands on her hips and her foot tapping. “Why didn’t you try harder to stop Steven from fighting?” Matthias shrugged. “Boy, do not shrug at me.” Steven giggled a bit before Pearl shot him a look.

“I’m sorry, Mama. I didn’t mean to go into the rink, I should have listened to Matthias better.” He looked down at his hands which were black and blue. He winced and looked away from them as Jasper walked over and gave Pearl the medical kit. “I promise I won’t go back there ever again. I hurt to badly and I learned my lesson.” Pearl sighed and started to clean him up, he winced as she cleaned his face and wrapped his eye like Jasper did for Matt. She then wrapped both of his hands up, when she was done she kissed his forehead. “It’s alright, just don’t do it again.”  

“I am going to change and then find food. I’m starving.” He said and made his way up stairs to find some pajama pants. He quickly pulled them on as he was making his way over to the stairs he somehow managed to trip over one of his toys and fell over the edge of the loft. Before he had the chance to make impact or anyone to catch him, he started to float. His heart was beating fast as everyone stared at him. He was thankful that the powers had kicked in when it needed too.

“Why didn’t you tell us you had this power, Steven?” Rose asked softly walking towards him as he righted himself on his feet.

“I-I didn’t know that I had them until now …” He lied and smiled wide hoping they fall for it. Out of the corner of his mind, he saw Matthias narrow his eyes and shook his head. No one else seemed to see it and the others seemed to believe me. Rose nodded and walked with him to the kitchen making him something to eat. After everything, they all said goodnight to each other and Steven went to bed with his whole body throbbing. He had the same weird dreams as he did the night before.

He woke up the next morning breathing heavily, he check his chest to see if there was a gem shard embedded in it. There was none and he took a deep breath to calm his nerves. It was just a dream, Steven. He told himself and swung his legs over to the bed, he sat there in pain for a few minutes. Then an idea clicked. He wondered if his spit could heal his injuries like in his world, taking a lick of his palm making sure there was plenty of saliva on his palm and he stuck it to the bruise on his stomach. Nothing happened. What a bust. He guess this Steven doesn’t have that power or it didn’t come in.

It was pretty quiet in the house as he stood up and went over to his dresser grabbing some clothes. He made his way down to the living to find no one in there, that was unusual as usually Pearl or Rose would be making some type of breakfast for him or for the others. Shrugging, he went into the bathroom and did what he needed, he also changed the bandages that covered his still swollen eye. Once he was done in the bathroom, there were actual gems in the temple. Ruby and Sapphire was sitting on the couch playing with a tablet. “Hey Ruby! Hey Sapphire.” He waved at them as they looked up from what they were doing.

“Hey Steven!” They both said in usion as he walked over to the fridge and grabbed an apple and water.

“How did you sleep last night?” Asked Sapphire scooting over for him to sit down next to her. He shrugged and bit into his apple. “You look pretty beat up, Amethyst told us what happened.”

“Did she now?”

“Yeah, she said you kicked Lapis’ ass like a champ.” Ruby popped up and jumped onto the coffee table. She mimicked some punches as Sapphire and him giggled.  “Yeah, I wish I was there to witness it. It must have been so cool!”

“What was that, Ruby?” Pearl asked as she walked out of the temple door with Rose right behind her. “Did I just hear you encourage my son to fight?” Ruby’s cheeks turned lighter than normal as she got off the table and sat down next to Sapphire shaking her head. “That’s what I thought. Good Morning, Steven.”

“Good Morning, Mama. How are you doing this morning?” He asked finishing his apple.

“I am doing just fine thank you.” 

Steven stood up from the couch, water bottle in hand as he walked over to the bar and sat down. He watched as both of his moms started to take things out of the fridge to cook with. “Hey … um I was wondering if I could go to the barn today. I wanted to talk to Lapis about last night.”  Both of his moms stopped what they were doing and looked at him before looking at each other. Pearl bit her lip.  
  
“I don’t think that’s a very good idea, Steven.” Rose said. “I don’t like how you and Peridot treat each other. And you are already so beat up from last night, I don’t want you getting hurt anymore.” Rose started to cut up some bell pepper after she was done speaking. Steven wondered what him and Peridot had a beef for.

“Please mom? I really want to go over there. What if I bought somebody else a long?  Like Ruby and Sapphire. They’ll go with me! Won’t you guys?” He turned around in his seat to look at the two smaller gems on the couch. They looked up dumbfounded before nodding quickly. He was pretty sure they didn’t know what they signed up for, but it was better than nothing. “See…” Rose and Pearl looked at each other again and they both sighed in unison.

“Fine …” Pearl mumbled and Steven jumped off his seat and gave them both a hug. They returned them gratefully both with a smile on their faces.

“But before I go … I want to visit the big donut.” He walked over to Ruby and Sapphire who stood up and put the tablet on the stand. They both looked at each other than at Rose and Pearl, they were all uncertain about what he said, but his moms let him go anyway. The two gems that were trailing behind him was giggling and pointing at different stuff almost like they were on a date. It was cute to Steven as they made their way to the donut shop. They finally made it as the bell above their head rung as they walked into the shop. He was happy to see Lars behind the counter, except he looked a bit different than normal. His face was a bit more “feminine” than usual and something about him was off as well, but Steven couldn’t explain what it was.

“Oh it’s you.”  Lars said, Steven noticed the voice was of higher pitch than normal as well.  “Are you here to tell me more transphobic insults? If you are then you can get out, Steven.” Steven stood there trying to make sense of what Lars just told him, he looked over at Ruby and Sapphire when they shrugged he looked back at Lars.

“What is transphobic?” He asked confused at the word. Lars looked like he was getting frustrated on why Steven would as him such a question. He really didn’t know what Lars was talking about. He never heard of the word before.

“Don’t play stupid with me, Steven. You know I am transgender and you go off and make those stupid remarks with your group of friends every time you come in here. I don’t think I can handle you calling me names today alright. Sadie got bad news about her mom and it’s pulling on me too. Are you going to order or not?” Steven just stood there dumbfounded trying to comprehend what just happened. He didn’t understand what the hell Lars was talking about. “So, do you want your usual plain donut and cookie cat?”

Steven just nodded his head, his thoughts were somewhere else. Sapphire and Ruby ordered their donuts, when Lars was filling the bag, Sadie came in through the front door. “Hey Sadie,” Steven greeted her and she gave him a dirty look as she jumped onto the counter. She kissed Lars when he walked over to her with the bag for Steven. _Guess they were dating in this universe._ He thought. He didn’t understand why she glared at him though. “Did I do something wrong?”

“Yeah, you never showed up last night after your fight. You and Greg were supposed to pick up your candy. I really need the money, Steven.” He looked at her confused. “But good job on the fight, heard you won. So, where’s Greg, dude?”

"The last time I saw him was last night, Amethyst and I took his van so he probably had no way to get to you. If I see him next time, I'll tell him about his candy. Also, I don’t want any candy … so you can just sell that to Greg as well.” He handed Lars the money for the food. “Keep the change. And I am sorry for being whatever you told me I was being. Whatever I did, I didn’t mean to hurt you, Lars.” He walked out of the shop with Sapphire and Ruby right behind him. When they were far away from the shop he handed them their donuts. “I’m sorry, but can anyone tell me what she meant by Candy? And what’s wrong with Sadie’s mom?”

“Sadie's mother is in the hospital with cancer, she has been selling drugs on the street to try to pay for her hospital bills. What she meant by candy was drugs, Steven. I am proud of you for declining on buying them.” Ruby said as they walked back towards the beach house to take the warp pad to the barn.

“Also … do you know what he meant by transgender?”

Sapphire was the one who spoke up first, “Transgender is a person whose sense of personal identity and gender does not correspond with their birth sex. So for example, Lars is Female to Male. He mentally doesn’t feel like his was born in the right body. And you already knew this that’s why he was commenting on the fact that you were being really harsh to him the other day.” _Oh. Thanks other, Steven. For making me feel like crap today._ The walk from the warp pad to the barn wasn’t that bad, but he was still out of breath when they finally made it. He fell on his back in the soft plush green grass, the two smaller gems looked down upon him. “Are you okay, Steven? Ruby get the water hose. I think, Steven needs a spray down.” He quickly got up and shook his head, but it was too late by the time he managed to turn around Ruby was already drenching him. “Okay, I think that's enough.” Sapphire said giggling the whole time.

He took off his shirt before taking his hair out of the bun he had put it in this morning. It was hard to squeeze the water out of his hair with his hands being bruised and all, but he somehow managed to do so. “Thanks you two. I appreciate the bath.” He walked over to where they were and laid out his shirt on the clothing wire that was hanging up. It would be dry by the time he was done here. Speaking of here, he took a step back to look at the barn. It was quite different compared to the one at home. There wasn’t things sticking out on top of the barn, it was a lot cleaner too. It was still kind of cluttered though. There were car parts, and a truck in front, he could tell that there was somebody underneath it.

“Baby, I need the wrench. Can you stop training for a second and hand it to me?” It was a male's voice, but it sure wasn't Matt's. Who did it belong to? A blue skin gem walked out of the barn, her hands were covered in bandages and she was in a sports bra and loose sports shorts. Lapis Lazuli. She looked better than yesterday, so she must have reformed to get rid of her injuries. She handed the wrench to a green hand. “Thanks, love.” Lapis replied with something to low for him to hear. She finally looked over at them.

“Steven! You look like shit!” She said running over to them. “And why don’t you have a shirt on?” She looked him up and down making him feel a little self-conscience, but he was glad that she was talking more than last night. “Doesn't matter, did everything go well with Rose and Pearl last night?” He shrugged, before pointing to the guy under the truck.  
  
“Who's that?” He asked her, she looked where his finger was pointing and giggled. He turned to look back at her smiling face and her eyes shining brightly. Like she was in love. Also it was really weird seeing her so giggly and happy like this. Back in his universe, Lapis was all depressed and sad.  
  
“That's Peridot. He has been working on his truck all night, he almost has it running. Don't you, baby?” Steven heard a grunt and somebody rolled out from under the truck. The gem was wearing a dark green flannel with his sleeves rolled up to the elbow, his pants were blue jeans with grease stains on them. His hair was short, but messy. It sure looked like Peridot, but this Peridot had a wider build, and looked much taller than his Peridot. Also the huge difference in gender. The gem got up and stretched lifting his arms above his head to show off some of his flat stomach.  
  
Peridot walked over to Lapis and wrapped his arms around her waist, and kissed down her neck, then cheek. Steven looked to his side to see Ruby and Sapphire sneaking off. Rolling his eyes, he looked back at the other two gems in front of him. “That's right. Almost got it running. I just need a few more parts that Matt is supposed to bring around in an hour.” As he talked he had noticed that Peridot was wearing braces. Did gems need braces? He guess he thought it looked good on him or something. “What exactly are you doing here anyway, Steven? What happened to never coming back here or did you change your mind on hating me?”

Steven stood there there trying to come up with an excuse to tell him, “Nah, I never hated you. I was just flustered back then, man. I’m okay now.” Peridot seemed to buy as he just shrugged and reached into his pocket grabbing a pack of cigarettes. He stepped back just a bit as the gem lit the and took a drag, Steven guess because gems don’t actually get health problems like humans it was okay for them to smoke. He didn’t like it himself though as he shook his head when Peridot offered him to take a drag. “No thank you. I am trying to quiet.” He laughed nervously before Peridot shrugged and rolled his eyes. He handed the cigarette to Lapis who took it from him taking a drag off of it as well.

His ears twitched as he heard a twig snap behind him, turning he saw Matthias walking up to them holding a box of what seemed like car parts that Peridot was just talking about. He let go of Lapis and ran over to Matt. “Sweet, you got it! And you came early.” He said excitedly as he grabbed the box and ran over to the truck with it. Steven looked at Matt and nodded at him, he nodded back. He then looked at Lapis and smiled softly at her, she returned it. Steven walked over to the truck, Peridot was already under it as he sat down next to him.

“So what kind of truck is this?” Steven asked lightly touching the smooth surface. The exterior color was a very beautiful blue color that shone when the sun hit its.

“Well, technically Steven, it’s not a truck. It’s a coupé utility vehicle, but that’s beside the point.” Peridot rolled out from underneath the car and sat there as he looked at Steven. “It’s a 1967 Chevrolet El Camino. It has a 350 V8 Goodwrench Targetmaster crate engine headers, aluminum intake, A/C with Sanden style compressor, Edelbrock carb, electronic ignition. Automatic with floor mounted shifter, aluminum wheels, 12 bolt rear end and a Wood wheel.” Steven didn’t understand a word Peridot just told him, but he nodded anyway. “With the parts that Matthias brought me, I should be done in about three days if I continuously work on it.”

“Oh that’s cool,” Steven mumbled and stood up. “Well, good luck with that.” He went to walk away when Peridot grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him back down again. The smell of cigarettes was filling Steven’s nostrils as he tried to get out of the tight grip of Peridot’s hand. “What are you doing, man? Let go of me.” He snapped and tried to pull harder, but Peridot wouldn’t budge.

“I am not as stupid as the others around here, Steven.” Peridot’s voice was low so the others couldn’t listen to them. “I see the subtle things you do and I see how Sapphire looks at you as well.” Steven’s heart started to race as he waited for Peridot to finish what was going to be said. Did he know about him not being the Steven in this universe? Peridot eased his hand a bit, but didn’t let go as he leaned closer to his ear. “Honestly, do not care who the hell you are or how the hell you even get here… but so help me, by the diamonds, I will kill you if you lay a hand on any of my family. Do you understand me?” Steven took a huge gulp of air, his hands were becoming more sweaty under the bandages. “You don’t seem like a bad guy, not at all. I’m still going to warn you, though.”

Steven nodded his head, “I-I understand you. Loud and clear.” Peridot finally let go of his wrist and gave him a smile like nothing happened. Matthias watched their interaction from the distance trying to tune in on what they were discussing, but Peridot’s voice was too low for him to hear. He clenched his fists and slammed it into the side of the barn breaking right through it. There was something suspicious about Steven in the past few days and he wanted to get to the bottom of it. When he pulled his hand back from the hole, Lapis was staring right at him through it.

“How about next time, you punch the punching bag and not the barn.” She insisted, “You want to come in here and talk to me about what’s bothering you?” Tourmaline sighed and shrugged, it was better than nothing and Lapis would actually listen to him. He tried to talk about it was Jasper, but her mind seemed to be off somewhere. He couldn’t tell if it was her career or if it was something else. He walked around the barn before walking inside of it. Lapis led if up to the loft where the TV and couch was, they both sat down. “Now tell me, what’s on your mind?”

Matthias laughed, “What is this, Lapis? A therapy meeting?”

Lapis shrugged, “It could be. If you want it to be, Tourmaline.” He sighed shaking his head, he didn’t need a therapy session he just needed to see if anyone else noticed Steven’s changes. “Now, why did you punch a hole in my barn’s wall? You know you’re gonna have to fix that right?” Tourmaline gave her a side look before nodding.

“Do you see the way … Steven has been acting recently? Please tell me you noticed the differences as well.” Matthias said after a few minutes of trying to gather his thoughts. “Like … last night for an instance… He seemed way more spaced out during the fight than he normally is. He also refused to do anything with Greg… I mean yeah he has been sober from drugs for a year now … but the way he handled the situation. And just today, I watched when I was coming up with the parts he refused to take a cigarette from Peridot.”

Lapis sat there trying to gather up all the information that Matt just told her, but she couldn’t see what he was seeing. She shook her head, “No, I’m sorry. All I have been noticing was Steven growing up and maturing. I think he is trying to prove to his moms that he isn’t such a bad kid after all, Matt.” Matthias stood up, he knew he shouldn’t have told her anything. They were too oblivious to realize what he was seeing. “Now go fix that wall, please.” He sighed and clenched his fists again holding back the anger he felt, he went back down to the base level of the barn just as Steven walked in. They gave each other a look, before he quickly looked away and started to look for a board to fix the hole with.

A few hours later all the gems seemed to be just hanging out in the barn, it was mid afternoon, therefore Steven’s shirt was dry and bac onto his body. Just how he likes it. Peridot and him were playing darts when Rose, Pearl, Amethyst, and Jasper all walked into the barn together. Steven threw the last dart before looking over at the gems that walked in. He wondered why they were all here, and also he wondered why Garnet could possibly be. It was like all the others were here, but her. “Hey guys, what’s up?” He asked walking over to them. Jasper seemed to depart the group walking away from the others and into the back room. She didn’t seem like she was in a very good mood, he wondered what was up.

“Hey Steven!” Amethyst greeted him before walking away to wear Peridot was. He watched them for a minute, then looked away to look at his two moms. Pearl was wearing mom jeans rolled up and striped tank top, while Rose was wearing her normal dress. Pearl looked around the barn in disgust and mumbled something under her breath that he was unable to tell what it was.

“Hello, Steven. You haven’t checked in with us so we decided to come by. Amethyst and Jasper only came to hang out with the others. What have you been doing here?” Pearl asked walking over to Steven, she checked him head to toe. “Looks like your bandages needs to be changed soon.” Steven rubbed the back of his head and chuckled.

“I’m sorry, I should have checked in sooner. And nothing really. Been playing darts with Peridot, and working on the truck with him. I learn a lot about cars that I didn’t even know existed. So, it’s been a lot of fun so far.” Rose looked a bit surprised when she heard that Steven and Peridot was hanging out again. She wondered about the safety of her child at the barn all day, but to only find out that he was having fun and that Peridot and him were best friends once again. She was happy to hear that, but her happiness was soon destroyed when a familiar sound pierced all their ears once again. All the gems that were in the barn came running towards the entrance and stared at the sky. Dread filled their hearts when they saw what was coming towards them.

A menacing, modern floating pod burst out of the clouds above and beams of yellow ray of light shined down on top of them. “It’s the Roaming Eye! The rubies are back.” Peridot said and groaned. S _o the rubies have already showed themselves here in this universe._ Steven bit his lip as he watched the pod land gracefully onto the ground, “It’s been a year since the last time they were here. What are they doing back?”

Steven wondered the exact same thing. He stood his ground ready to draw his shield if there was going to be a fight. The rubies stumbled out before lining up, Doc, was the  first to step out and point at the group of gems. “You! Jasper!” Steven looked over to see Jasper with a dull look on her face, she stepped forward and pointed at herself. “Yes you!” Matthias moved passed all the others and stood near Jasper, he stood tall.

“What do you want with Jasper?!” He snapped. “I asked you a damn question. What do you want with Jasper?” His voice was raising, and his hand went to the spot where his gem was. Steven couldn’t exactly see Matt’s gem, he noticed as he was wearing a purple sweater. Jasper stuck her hand up and stopped Matthias from whatever he was about to do, his hand went back and moved to his side as he watched Jasper curiously. 

Doc stepped forward some more and growled, it wasn’t very intimidating as she was just a little thing compared to Matthias. “Yellow Diamond wants her. We need to bring her back as soon as possible.” She snapped, Matt’s arm shot out again to stop Jasper from stepping forward, but she just pushed him away shaking her head.

“Why do you want me?” She asked, the other Rubies suddenly surrounded her. “Hurry up and fucking explain!” She snapped at the them. Tourmaline looked hurt and confused as he watched his girlfriend betray him and the Crystal Gems altogether.

“We need to take you back to Homeworld, where you can tell Yellow Diamond what happened on your mission.” Doc said.

“I will come with you. Just stop acting like an idiot.” Jasper told them before turning around and facing Matthias. Her face was not forgiving.   
  
“What?! Babe!” Matt said and pushed the Rubies out of his way, he stood as tall as Jasper, but with a smaller build. “You can't do this. Are you really betraying the Crystal Gems?” He asked sounding hurt. Jasper had a sneer smile on her face before pushing him aside like he was nothing. “Baby! Don't ignore me! What the hell are you doing? Are you really going to leave everything you worked hard on? Are you going to leave me?”

Jasper turned around, the same look on her face as before. “Sorry. Not Sorry.” All she said as she piled into the pod with the rubies. The red pod was soon off the ground and zoomed into the sky, disappearing. Matthias stood there looking up at the sky, his fists clenched. Steven walked over to him and grabbed his arm, he pushed him away and stormed off. How could Jasper do something like this to him? After everything they been through, he knew he should have never gotten close to her again. He should have realized that her views were always going to be the same, just like thousands of years ago during the rebellion. Now he was just left hurt and broken, he clenched his chest where he gem was and his teeth gritted together. Pain shot through his body, but he tried his best to ignore it as he sped up his walk to a run.

“Give him some time.” Rose had a hand on Steven’s shoulder as they all watched Matt stormed off. _What the hell happened? Did Jasper just betrayed them?_ He asked himself. Rose turned around and faced the other gems. “Do you realize what this means, don't you?” Rose’s heart felt like it was going to collapse after so many years, Homeworld wanted to go to war with them one more. She just hoped that they would actually win the fight with as little deaths as possible. Deep down she knew it wasn’t going to happen like that. Looking at Pearl, the look in her eyes gave her everything she needed to know. They were all scared. They didn’t have the resources like they did before. She looked over at her only son, the look masked on his face was heartbreaking. She knew the war was going to be hard for him. It was going to be hard for everyone.

It was later that day, the sun was setting, it was only Ruby, Sapphire, Peridot, Lapis and Amethyst along with Steven left at the barn. He had found out earlier that Garnet was out on a date with Jamie again, but she was supposed to be back over here shortly. Rose and Pearl went back to the temple to try and think about what was going to happen now that there was going to be a war. Matthias still hasn’t come back from what happened earlier, and Sapphire kept telling Steven that everything was going to be okay and not to worry. It was hard for Steven not to worry, even if he didn’t trust Matthias that much, he was still a Crystal Gem. And the Crystal Gems always stuck together. Just as Steven finished his what seemed like 100th pace, Matthias walked into the barn.

“I’m sorry … for the outburst earlier.” He looked like shit with his hair in a mess and his clothes looked like they wanted to be ripped off of him. Matthias went over to the chair that was leaning against a wall and sat down. His hands were holding up his head as he leaned forward.

Steven walked over to him and laid his hand on his shoulder, "Matt, are you okay? You were gone for a pretty long time. So, I was getting worried about you." All of sudden Matthias’ hand shot out and grabbed Steven’s wrist. Electricity pulsed through his skin, it burned and tingled to the point of tears in his eyes. "Matt, let go you are hurting me."

"Good because you're not our Steven. So, who the living hell are you then?" His stomach churned and he felt like he was going to puke. How was he going to explain this to him? Or the others at that. When Sapphire and Peridot found out they didn’t ask any questions or made a scene in front of the other gems. Tourmaline, however, did make a big deal out of it. He stared at Matt with his eyes wide, while the gem’s eyes were narrowed. Electricity sparked from the grip on his wrist, he could feel his skin burning slowly. He was glad in this moment that he was part gem, if he was fully human then his skin would have been charred already. “Are you going to explain or not?!”


	7. Chapter Six

Steven and Matthias’ eyes just locked and stared at each other, none of them even blinking. The barn gone really quiet as everyone’s eyes were on those two. Matt’s grip just became tighter and it burned hotter as jolts of electricity shot up through his arm. “What are you talking about? Just let me go, Matthias.” Steven knew he was going to get a burn and most likely a bruise where Matt was gripping him, “Let me go. You are just feeling betrayed because Jasper left you. Left us all. You’re going to seriously hurt me if you do not let go.” Tears were starting to form in his eyes as he took his other hand and grabbed Matt’s wrist to try and pull free, but he only got electrocuted. He moved his hand up and down trying to get rid of the tingling sensations in his hand.

Peridot walked over to them and put a hand on Matt’s chest, just below where his gem was. “Your gem is burning making your whole chest feel like you’re on fire.” Peridot leaned closer to Matt, Steven was almost not able to hear what was being said, but he managed to catch what was said. “If you go at this rate … you will be consumed.” He had to pull away his hand as it was getting too unbearable, “You’re also going to break the boy’s bones. He is not durable like the rest of us, you know this. Just because he is “half-gem” doesn’t mean he is made as one, Fish brain. Let’s step outside and discuss this with the others.” Matthias let go of Steven’s wrist with force pushing him back, he would have fallen if Amethyst and Lapis didn’t tag teamed and caught him. They steadied him to his feet.

“Maybe you should go try and rest, Steven. Go up to the loft and lay down on the couch, I’ll be up there shortly with the first aid kit.” Lapis patted his back, and Steven just nodding. He was drained from what happened, and he was drained from panicking about the gems finding out that he wasn’t their Steven. He had a feeling that something like that would happen, he was afraid of what the others would do when they find out too. He was especially afraid of Rose and Pearl’s responses.

“Out now!” Snapped Peridot and pushed on Matt’s arm towards the door. The blue gem growled and slapped his hand away as he stormed out of the door. The other five gems looked at Steven wearily before he made his way up to the loft of the barn, his arm was burning and still tingling from the grip it previously had on. He looked down at the bottom floor, both Peridot and Sapphire with her hair moved out of her eye stared at him. He nodded towards them before they walked out of the barn with the others. When Peridot walked out of the barn, he wrapped his arms around his girlfriend’s waist. Lapis put a cigarette in his mouth and lit it for hm, he stared at Matt, wondering if he should just play dumb or flat out tell him that he already knew.

Either way, he knew Matthias would get mad and it was only going to make his situation worse. Matthias was obviously flustered, Peridot could tell by the blue sparks flying from the blue gem’s skin and gem on his chest. He unwrapped his arms from Lapis and took the cigarette out of his mouth handing it to her, he moved around her to stand on her left side. He wanted to hear why Matthias thought this wasn’t their Steven, even if he already knew it wasn’t, he wanted to know his side of the story. “Alright, we need you to tell us why you don’t think that’s our Steven in there.” The tourmaline gem stared at Peridot with cold purple eyes, his jaw was clenched.

The gem’s chest rose when he took in a deep breath, “Since he came here, haven’t you noticed changes?” He was addressing the three smaller gems of the group; Sapphire, Ruby, and Amethyst. “My god, he is so much more polite and generous than our Steven! That’s the biggest difference. How does no one notice that?” Tourmaline racked his hand through his hair that was starting to stand up in attention from the electric current coursing through his body. The others stepped back as sparks flew hitting the ground where they were just standing. The sparks made a small fire which he immediately stepped on it to distinguish it. “Look … this Steven … or whoever this person is refused to take drugs when Marty offered. Yeah … our Steven has been sober from it, but we all know that he has been getting stressed lately, he would have taken them. And listen to this, he forgot he was seventeen. Pearl told me the morning when Steven woke up from party he was talking nonsense about a corrupted gem monster shooting shards out of his beak and hitting him in the chest. We haven’t fought a monster like that in months.”

His hands were shaking and he wasn’t able to keep them steady. “He was WORRIED about me. Worried. Yeah, we are best friends, but he would never worry or care as much as that Steven.” Amethyst stepped forward, digging her shoe into the ground and twirling her thumbs, she took a deep breath and looked at the others.

“He … um … comforted me yesterday …” her voice was shaky as she tried to talk, “He was the sweetest thing ever, he was there and he understood so well. I don’t know if I believe it or not, but if this is our Steven then maybe he is just changing.” But what was she kidding? Their Steven would have never comforted like he did with her yesterday, he would have laughed in her face and call her weak. “I like this kid … he is far better than our Steven. He reminds me when he was just a boy, filled with more innocence and joy,” she flipped her bangs out of her eyes with a swing of her head. “I do not care who he is, I’ll treat him like he is one of us.” Amethyst had to jump back as sparks flew from Matt again. "Watch it, dude. I'm half on your side."

Ruby shook her head and stepped forward. "I don't see what you are getting at, seriously. Can you not see that some people change? He is growing up, he’s almost an adult. A person does think about what they are doing in their lives and feel like they need a change. That’s probably what he is doing.” She was unusually calm, Sapphire kind of calm. The gems could see the smoke coming off of the grass where Ruby stood. "You're just upset because Jasper played you. Now calm your balls and drop the subject."

"I don't need to calm my balls, Ruby. I can tell when my best friend is not acting like himself. And he is certainly not acting like himself. I've been around him since he was born, I know everything about that boy. Yes, you were there as well, but I know him better than his own parents," he said through clenched teeth, he was ready to punch something. "Have you recently looked at his arms? You haven't seen any of the scars? Or holes, have you? Yeah me neither. I haven’t seen one scar on that boy’s arm. Not one. And did you see the unusual scar that’s on his chest? He didn’t have that before and you all know it."

The grass beneath Ruby's feet was no more than charred ashes, but her outside appearance was calm. Her face showed no sign of being angry, her tone of voice was a different story though and her clenched fists which turned into gauntlets, "Look here, Tourmaline, like I said before you need to get over Jasper, she played you, and now it's over. You don't need to take your anger out on everyone else." Matthias drew his sword from his gem, if Ruby wanted a fight than she was going to get a fight. The sword was an arming or most would say a knightly sword that was made out of damascus steel. It was a European styled weapon with a single-handed cruciform hilt and straight double-edged blade of around 70-80 cm, but his sword was bigger than average around 130 cms, or three feet in length.

It almost resembled a long sword if you didn't know the difference. His blade was a beautiful bright yellow and his hilt had stunning navy blue leather wrapped around for a better grip. Sparks flew from the store, you could see the electricity dancing around the blade itself. Sapphire bit her lip, the outcomes she saw wasn’t pretty as she walked over to her wife, putting a cold hand on Ruby’s shoulder. “Ruby, baby, calm down. It’s nothing to fight over. We just need to talk to Steven himself.” Ruby pushed Sapphire away from her a little too hard as she fell backwards on her butt. Ice went everywhere the other gems managed to avoid the ice, but Ruby and Matt was so into fighting each other that they weren’t paying attention. That is until their feet were frozen solid to the ground, “Ruby, stop! Matt’s right! He isn’t our Steven! Now stopped the fighting.” Her breathing was rough as she snapped, she didn’t like losing control of her temper. She always was the very calm and collected person in the group.

“Sapphire is right …” Peridot spoke up, “I knew as well … but I didn’t want to cause drama in the group so I kept my mouth shut.” He looked down at his hands before looking to the side to see Lapis was gone so was Amethyst. Where could those two run off too? That’s when the barn door opened to reveal Steven and Lapis. Steven’s bandages on his eyes and hands were changed, but the bandages on one of his hands extended just below his elbow. That poor boy was beat up to hell, and he looked scared. Ruby looked pissed as the ice was melting away, when she was free and before anyone could say anything the small fire gem ran at Steven. Peridot was the quickest and closet to the red gem, he managed to grab Ruby as she yelled and kicked. “Ruby … there’s no need for violence. Stop. We can talk about this. This might not be our Steven, but he is someone’s. If you hurt him, think about his family at home.” His arms were starting to smoke and a look of surprise was on his face before he suddenly poofed in a green cloud of smoke.

“Peridot,” squeaked Lapis running over to his gem that laid in the charred grass at Ruby’s feet. Lapis pushed the red gem away angrily as she picked her boyfriend up and held it to her chest. She looked like she was going to cry as she looked straight at Ruby, “No one cares if that isn’t the real Steven or not. What does it matter? He isn’t a piece of shit like the other one.” She snapped and grew her wings out flying away.

“Why did I hear Lapis screaming and then her flying away?” Rose’s voice came out of nowhere, they all turned to see her and Pearl walk up with Amethyst behind their tail. That’s where she must have gone to get his moms. “What the hell is going on here? Why is the grass charred to ash? Why is Matthias in a block of ice with his sword out?” Rose put her hands on her hips and stared at them waiting for an answer, “Well?”

“That’s not your son, Rose,” Matthias said trying to break free of the ice by constantly butting it with his sword. His eyes were shifting towards Ruby who was now in Sapphire’s arms trying to calm down. He then looked at the scared Steven by the barn door,  his whole body was trembling as he watched the outcome fold out. "Whoever that boy is, whatever that boy is, he is not our Steven." Rose looked at Steven to confirm the truth before he could speak up, Sapphire did for him.

"It's the truth, Rose. I knew from the beginning, and I wish I came out with the truth then. I didn't see how bad it would get if I didn't tell you. I am deeply sorry." Rose held up her hand to silence Sapphire, she then pointed a finger at Steven, motioning him to step forward. He did what she asked of him. Steven was deathly scared of the taller women in front of him, she easily was three feet above his height. He didn’t know how she would take the outcome if he told her everything.

"Is it true, my boy, that you are not our Steven?" He nodded, tears finally escaping his eyes sinking through the bandages that covered one of them. "There is no need to cry, my dear. Come here." She opened her arms wide and he ran into them, she hugged him so tightly he felt like he was going to suffocate, but he didn’t care. He suddenly felt another pair of arms around him, he looked to see that it was Pearl who was smiling softly.

“I can’t say I wasn’t skeptical about you … I had my doubts, but I pushed them back thinking our Steven was trying to get better. Even if you are not our Steven, you are still our son, no matter what dimension you come from. You could have told us from the beginning that you were not from this world.” Pearl whispered and kissed his forehead, her lips were warm and soft to the the touch. He felt loved as she wiped away the tears from his eye, he didn’t know why in the beginning he was scared. Now though, he knew everything was going to be alright. “Do you know how you got here?” She asked.

Steven shook his head as he pulled away from the embrace and stood in the middle of the gems that now surrounded him. Ruby had unthawed Matthias so he was about to get into the group as well. “I had went on a mission with the gems. There was this corrupted monster that looked like a giant bird who would shoot gems out of his beak. The last thing I remembered was Garnet telling me to get to somewhere safe … in my world Garnet is a fusion of Ruby and Sapphire. Well, when I was trying to get to safety I was struck with multiple gem shards. One went right through my chest,” he pointed to wear it had stuck, his head lingered on it longer than he meant. “There was so much blood … I could remember …” He started to choke up, “I could remember feeling cold and numb as I fell into Garnet’s arms. I remember trying to tell the gems that I loved them before blacking out … I woke up … here.” His throat felt tight like it was closing up on him like he couldn’t breathe.

The gems were all silent as they took in the new information, all had grim looks on their faces. Once Steven was able to breath again, he started to continue recounting events. “I didn’t want to be accused of doing something to your Steven … I honestly swear on my life that I have no idea where he is. If he is okay or anything.” He then faced Rose, trying to not cry once again. His clean bandages were needed to be changed again on his eye. “I-I also wanted to spend as much time as I can with you … in … in my world you gave up your physical for to give birth to me … fifteen years ago … I never got to meet you. I only knew you from stories and videos, I always felt like it was somehow my fault that I was the one who took you away from your family.” He took a deep shaky breath as his whole body shook, “I took you away from dad, from Pearl, from Amethyst, and from Garnet. I took you away from the world you tried to save. I could never exceed to be what you were. A great leader, a great inspirational person. I’m just a child that has the weight of the world on my shoulders. I am a child born of a human and a gem. An abomination.” He finally wasn’t able to hold his weight any longer as he fell onto his knees. 

Suddenly there were chubby arms that wrapped around me, when he looked up he saw Amethyst on her knees hugging him, then there was another set, Pearl’s. More of the gems came by one by one hugging Steven in a huge group chat. The only one who didn’t join was Matthias, he just stood there with his eyes narrowed. He wasn’t going to have this, he still didn’t trust this being that was in front of him. Steven could feel Pearl’s tears on his neck staining his skin, he took in a deep inhale all the smells of the gems filled his nose reminding him of home and calming him down.

They all moved out of the group hug, except Pearl and Rose. His mom’s chubby pink fingers went under his chin and lifted his head before wiping away the tears once again. "You don't have to be afraid to tell me anything, Steven, I-we will always be here. If I and your Rose are the same people, then we wanted to have you. We made the sacrifice to have you. You should never feel at blame for taking us away from our family, my boy. That gem you have, your Rose is always watching over you and your family. She never actually left you." Her words were soothing as he listened to her speak, his eyes were red and puffy as the tears dried up.

“We just all need to figure out how to get back to your universe and get our son back,” Pearl ruffled his hair like he was still a little boy. “Not that we don’t love having you here, but I bet you miss your own family.” Steven nodded. “That’s what I thought. We will figure it out in the meantime, we need to keep you out of trouble.” They parted their hugs before Steven looked over at Matthias, his face was hard as a rock not showing any emotions towards him, he then turned his head not wanting to look his way. Steven felt guilt, like he ripped something important away from Matthias.

"Matthias ... I want to ... erm ... apologize for my outburst earlier. I guess you were ... grr ... right and I was wrong." Ruby's rough voice came out of nowhere. Steven turned to face her and watched as she walked over to the much taller gem, holding out her hand. Matthias had to slouch a bit to grab her hand and shake it without saying a word, she then turned towards Steven. “I want to apologize for running at you, Steven. I was just upset and wanted to punch something. You were the first thing I saw and what was on my mind.”

"It's okay, I understand Ruby. No need to apologize.” He smiled softly before it fell and looked down at his hands. “I have some questions that has been gnawing at me. Can we go into the barn where it’s much warmer and we can go over them?” They all nodded as they followed Steven into the barn, finding places to sit they gathered around into another circle. Matthias, however, was a little ways out of the circle, but still close enough to hear the conversation. “My first question is towards Sapphire and Ruby. A couple of days ago, when I first came here … I asked you a question of how Garnet was standing with you guys. You were going to tell me something, but I blocked it out. Now thinking about it, that wasn’t the truth was it?” 

Ruby and Sapphire’s cheeks were bright as they looked at each other and giggled. They looked back at Steven, “Well, you see, we originally were just too separated gems trying to find a safe resort from the diamonds. The story is to long to recount everything today, but what happened was we were messing around, dancing and giggling, we had accidentally tried to fuse. But then something happened, something interrupted the fuse. It’s still a mystery to this day how it happened, but when we separated there was baby Garnet in the middle of us. She had two gems on both of her hands and was combined of the two of us. You could call her Cotton Candy Garnet when she was first born. We never really questioned what happened that day all we knew was that were were parents.” Sapphire kissed Ruby’s cheek after explaining what happened.

“In my world … you two were part of Blue Diamond’s court … Ruby tried to save you and ended up fusing. You guys had to flee before you were shattered for the forbidden act.” He shrugged, before looking at Rose and Pearl, “My next questions are for you two … Why did you choose to have me with Greg? Why didn’t you just try and have one with Pearl? How come you didn’t lose your physical appearance like my Rose did?” The room grew on a heavy blanket, maybe he asked the wrong questions. “I’m sorry is something wrong?”

Pearl and Rose separated a bit , and Pearl wouldn’t look at Rose. “Maybe you should tell the story …” Pearl mumbled, now looking at her hands. “I-I don’t think I am able to retell it …” She sounded sad, but also angry. Maybe he did ask the wrong questions, and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to hear any of it now. 

“I’m sorry, Steven, this subject is really touchy. I’ll try to explain as best as I can.” Rose softly said. “It was a few years before our Steven was born, I had wanted to go explore Beach City … Mr. Universe was a big time rock star back then and I heard there was going to be a concert on the beach that night I went exploring. There was so many people, so many lovers, and friends, but when Greg was on that stage, he wasn’t a drug addict, he was just a normal guy. Of course being 8ft tall, I stood out like a sore thumb and he noticed me … and we started to talk. The days go by and I would stay away from the temple more and more, I would become distant with the love of my life.” She glanced at Pearl, who wouldn’t even look her way. “I had … I had thought I had fallen in love with this man … but it was just the foolishness. He fed me lies, he gave me gifts. I had broken my Pearl’s trust in me, broken the trust of my family for the mistake I had made.”

“Wait … are you telling me that you cheated on Pearl with Greg?” Steven asked, his stomach twisted inside of him. He felt kind of disgusted with Rose on how she could ever do that to Pearl, but then he remembered what his Rose was like. He guessed that they weren’t that much different … or were they? He still had one more question to ask her after she was done explaining the others he had asked of her.

“I had gotten pregnant … I knew the risks of having a baby ... especially with a human. It’s not like your world where we have to get up our physical form … we have to give up a power that we have … we don’t get to chose what that would be … it could be multiple for all we know. That’s how you were born, well my Steven was born. And that’s the only reason why he has a gem like mine because he possesses power from me... finds out that my power that was taken away from me was healing. I can no longer heal gems or humans or anything… we have been watching our Steven for the past seventeen years seeing if he was going to develop gem powers like us. We noticed that he does possess the powers of gem, but his human genes take over more. He is not as durable as us as you can see with being all bruised up. And his powers are not as strong as ours.” Rose looked over at Pearl once again who was finally looking her way.

“I had left Greg … I had felt terrible for what I have done to Pearl and the others. Greg went down here from there. Taking drugs, illegal street fights. I just couldn’t handle all that either after I had you all I wanted to do was try and make things better with everyone around me …” Rose scooted back over to Pearl and kissed her cheek, Pearl smiled at her and sighed. She couldn’t stay mad at her for long, especially when she is only retelling a story. 

“I have .. urm .. one more question for you …” Steven bit his lip and his hand went down to his gem. “Are you Pink Diamond?” There were gasps around the barn as everyone stared at him then at Rose, Rose just sat there looking at him confused and Pearl held her mouth with her hand. She then started to laugh loudly and everyone joined in. Steven felt stupid for even asking that question, they must thought he was stupid for even thinking it.

“What do you mean?” Rose asked, she was the only one not laughing. “Why would you ever assume that I am a diamond?”

“Well, my mom is Pink Diamond…” He let that sink in as the laughter died down. “She had lied to everyone and only entrusted her identity to Pearl and Pearl alone. Everyone thought Rose Quartz shattered Pink Diamond, when she was her all along…” He bit his lip.

“... Who knew that Mama Rose is a diamond in another dimension.” Amethyst said, “That’s some crazy shit there. It’s kind of funny honestly, when Pink Diamond is not in the picture … and everyone thought White was-” Amethyst got cut off my Rose giving her a look of silence. “I mean never mind, but still some crazy shit.”

Steven wanted to ask what she meant by that, but he didn’t have a chance when Rose started to talk again. “I promise you, love, that I am not Pink Diamond or any Diamond at that. I am just a normal Quartz gem.” Steven nodded at this, he kind of wanted to get off this subject now as it made him feel uncomfortable, but Amethyst spoke up once more.

“Wait … if Rose was Pink Diamond and she gave up her physical form to give birth to you … are you technically a diamond?” Steven just nodded and averted his eyes away from the others.

“Let’s change the subject …” He said before looking over to Matthias. “I want to know more about you, Matt. You’re not in my world … that I know of. I want to know your story. I want to know why you joined the Crystal Gems.” Matthias’ lip turned up as he heard the questions, he walked over to the group and stood there with his arms crossed over his chest. 

“You don’t need to know my past … all you need to know is that I joined the Crystal Gems because I had no other way. That’s it and that’s all. I’m going to bed. It’s late.” Matthias went to walk out the door when he turned around again and stared at Sapphire he could sense there was something off about her, the others noticed as well. “Sapphire, are you okay?” He asked her as she stood up and went over to the barn doors pushing past Matthias and stood in the doorway.

"Bismuth ... is coming ..." was all she said before all of the gems rushed over to her and out of the barn. Steven and Amethyst just stood in the doorway staring at the others before they watched as Leon the blue Lion jump through one of his portals out of nowhere. He landed in front of the group of gems with a large, bulky gem with broad shoulders like that of Jasper. The gem hair is styled in several dreadlocks in a mixture of several bright tones, all held back by a lilac headband. The gem had a periwinkle complexion, and she sports a single tattoo-like marking of a star pattern on her left shoulder in a smoky dark red. Her gemstone is in the center of her chest, and is noticeably concave.

As she jumped off Leon’s back, Steven noticed she was wearing a black apron-like outfit, resembling a blacksmith, with a single brownish attachment and a pinkish-red star shaped belt around her waist. Her pants are a burgundy color, and she has dark brown boots. She resembled exactly like his Bismuth back home that was now in bubble. His heart started to race as his breathing hitched and his throat tightened. He started to have flashbacks from that day in the forge. 


	8. Chapter Seven

**Back Home**

Steven was happy for once with a smile on his face flashing all of his pearl whites. Connie’s hand was still in his as he pulled her over to the warp pad, once both of them were firmly on the mantle there was a loud whirring sound. A flash of bright sky blue surrounded us, his stomach always felt like he lost it back down at the Temple. They landed on the other warp pad some ways from the barn, he looked over at Connie and she didn’t seem too happy to be here. He could tell that she was faking her smile, he felt guilt for pulling her along with him. He just wanted her to loosen up a bit become more of a “bad girl” she knew she was deep inside.

They didn't hold hands for very long as she pulled away from him, he felt sad. His Connie used to love holding hands with him wherever they went. The walk was quiet, few words here and there, and some humming from her. A song he couldn’t recognize, “What song is that?” He asked her and she stopped humming and looked at him like he asked the wrong question. “Did I ask something wrong?”

She shook her head and looked down, "No ... it's just the song I am humming ... is ours …" she paused trying to find the right words. He wasn't her Steven and she knew that, but she didn't want to be rude either. “It’s the one Steven and I used to sing when things got rough.  Do you think you'll ever switch bodies back?" She had asked him.

He had the urge to tell her that they will, but he didn’t know the answer to that one. He was scared to go back home, he didn’t want to be treated like he was some type of monster. And he didn’t want to go back to his old ways. Here you feel like the part of the family, they were never too busy for you. He shrugged his shoulders as they made it to the barn, barking came from behind the double wooden doors.The barn was different from his back at home, the paint was chipping here, there was no truck in the yard, there were things sticking out of the roof. Pulling open the massive door with the help of Connie, whatever was barking behind there came running out towards him.

It was a size of a medium pumpkin, well, it was a medium pumpkin once he got a good look at it. Its eyes were made from pumpkin seeds and his mouth looked like it was carved in there. The tail was a stem wagging as it barked at him. It was slightly creepy looking as he backed up away from it. The pumpkin started to growl and followed him."Get the hell away from me ..." He snapped at it as his leg went back then forward to kick it, he had accidentally tripped over something falling backwards. His head was throbbing as the world spun around him. He groaned as something heavy jumped on his stomach, but it wasn’t as bad of an impact as if he was in his regular body. The smell of pumpkin guts filled his nose and he wanted to gag as something slimy started to lick his face. When he opened his eyes again, the world had stopped spinning, but his vision was a bit blurry. Blinking a few times, he regained his composure to look up at the pumpkin that was just barking at him now.

Connie giggled, it was a beautiful sound to his ears, as she picked up the pumpkin off his chest. “Aw, seems like she likes you, Steven.” She smiled as she held the thing in her hands. _Its a girl? A pumpkin can have a sex?_ He started to shake his head as he got himself up, "Are you okay? Did you hit your head? Maybe we should go back to the temple now to get it checked out." Connie asked as she let down the pumpkin to help steady him. Maybe she really didn’t want to be here. He sighed, he shouldn’t have made her come with him.

"I'm fine, and no we do not." Looking around, the pumpkin had disappeared and faint voices were heard inside of the barn. "Let's go in there." He told her as he wobbled himself over that way to the open barn doors, his back was aching but it wasn’t bad. Inside was what you would call a pig stein, there was stuff everywhere, things on display, there was a fish tank with a creepy alien doll floating about. A TV was blaring loudly in a corner, turning his head in that direction, he saw the truck that is usually out front in the barn now rusting and peeling paint. There were blankets and pillows in the bed, with a TV on the door of the bed, Lapis and Peridot was snuggled up together watching what sounded like Camp Pining Hearts.  
  
Where were the bedrooms? Where was Matt supposed to sleep when he doesn't want to go back to the temple after a fight? Where was Matt supposed to go to get away from Pearl when she was nagging at everyone? "What the hell is going on with this mess? What the hell is this?" He picked up a smashed recorder, then put it down as it tried to spark at him "Why the hell is the barn in such a mess?" He had to be careful not to step on anything as the two of them made their way towards the truck with the two gems inside the bed.

The green gem jumped up away from Lapis and crawled her way over to the edge of the bed, she was tiny, and weird looking from the Peridot he knew back home. Her voice was more of a high pitched nasal version his Peridot. Her eyes narrowed behind her visor as she stared at him, "Do not come any closer than that." she said a little slow, he stopped and Connie ran into him. "You seem different ... turn around and walk back where you came from. I need to see something." He narrowed his eyes back at her before he turned around and started to walk. "Okay, stop. Now come back." He made a low growling sound getting impatient as he turned and walked back. "Lapis, do you see something wrong with him?"

Lapis jumped out of the truck and walked over to him, she was different from his Lapis too. She wasn't as fit as her, she wasn't wearing her normal workout clothes. She was wearing blue blouse and skirt, it was weird for him. She looked at him up and down before spinning Steven around making him a bit dizzy. "Yeah, this isn't our Steven." She pushed him away from her making him fall back onto his butt, all sudden he was lifted in the hair with a giant fist made of water squeezing the air right out of him "Who are you and what did you do with our Steven?"  
  
"L-Lapis, let him down. Let me explain." Connie had grabbed Lapis' arm, Lapis looked at her and shook her head. "Okay, this isn't our Steven, they somehow switched places, he is from another universe, or time dimension. What I am trying to say is that somehow there are two Stevens that had switched bodies, one went to our universe while the other went to his universe." Lapis let Steven go with a hard thump, he was soaking wet and miserable. Connie ran over to him, helping him up on his feet, he looked over at Lapis, his  nose was up and his mouth curved to the side like Steven was going to make a snarling nose. "Hey, it's going to be okay, Steven. They didn't know if you were a threat or not."  
  
"It doesn't matter if they thought I was a threat or not. Look at me, I am the exact replica of your Steven, nothing is different about me. What made you think I was freaking different for you to attack me?!" He growled out trying to get into the face of Lapis who looked at him dumbfounded, she was not interested in what he had to say. Then Peridot stood in front of him, they were the same height and it as weird as hell.  
  
"Actually, you are not the exact replica of our Steven." She said matter of fact, "You have multiple things different about you. One, you walk like you are vastly superior than everyone else. Our Steven walks like he is holding the world on his shoulders, and he is what is that earth word..." She paused trying to think of the word.  
  
"Shy?" offered Connie.  
  
"Yes, shy. Second, you have a scar right above your right eye, it's faint, but noticeable. Our Steven does not have that as he rarely gets scars on his body from anything. Third, you talk differently from our Steven, almost like you are holding in a lot of pain behind your mask." Peridot put her hands on her hips, and grinned at him like she was proud of herself. “Fourthly, you acted like you have never seen the barn this way your whole life.” He made a disgusted face, rolling his eyes.  
  
"How the hell do you even get that from looking at me for a minute? How observant are you of your Steven?" He was barely here a few minutes and it took only a little to determine the fact that he wasn’t their Steven. "Okay, whatever never mind then. Where do you guys sleep? Where does Matthias sleep here?" He knew the gems told him they didn’t know who this Matthias was, but the look in their eyes told him different. So, now he was going to ask these two and see what they know.  
  
"Who's Matthias?" Asked Lapis.  
  
Peridot, Lapis and Connie all looked at him like he was stupid. He felt stupid after asking that, his hand shot out behind him to rub his neck. "Um, he is a tourmaline gem. My best friend, he lives in the temple and sometimes here."  
  
"Tourmaline gem? Male?" Peridot looked at him before she started to laugh hard. "I haven't seen a tourmaline gem since they all poofed almost five hundred years ago. And a male one at that? You really must be losing it, Steven #2." She wiped the tears away from her eyes as he stared at her _. They were all poofed? What was she talking about?_  
  
"Peri, what do you mean by that?" Connie asked. She sounded genuinely curious, but her face showed something like she was in horror of what she just heard. His blood started to rush in his veins, and his heart started to pump wildly in his chest as he waited for Peridot to answer Connie.  
  
"Well, how about I show you instead?" Peridot grabbed ahold of Lapis' hand, "Come with me?" Lapis looked like she thought about it for a second before nodding, hand in hand they followed the two out of the barn and the mile down the hill to the warp pad. By the time he got there, he wanted his body back at least he learned to take care of himself than the other one. He was never huffing and puffing like this, not since he was twelve, that was when he was starting to grow in his gem powers and train more.

They stepped onto the wrap pad and was shot up in the air, when he opened his eyes they were somewhere dark, tree surrounded them in every corner. Where were they? Lapis and Peridot started to walk forward, with a quick glance at Connie they had followed them. The forest seemed limitless, thick, and rich, as he looked up and around. He could name most of the trees. Ash, Oak and elm were a few, they had allowed adequate light to pass down on them. Down at their feet was a collection of mushrooms, and in front of them were vines that clung to most of the trees, and a medley of flowers which he have never seen anywhere, but here. A mixture of noises, belonging mostly to birds and vermin, resonated through the air, and were strangely synchronized with the rustling of the leaves and branches of the tree tops in the wind. This place gave Steven goosebumps and he didn't like it that much, he thought that they were going to a kindergarten or someplace different.

Was this worth wondering what happened to all the tourmaline? "This forest is called the Land of Whispers, I have been here twice before to learn more about the plant that the great diamond authority wanted so bad." Peridot was whispering as they walked, it was hard to hear from all the other noise that was around them.  
  
"Why is it called the Land of Whispers?" he asked her, he have never heard anything like this in his universe. Maybe his moms were hiding something from him. When he gets home, he was \ going to ask about it. If  he did ever get home that is. He wonder if they even had something like this there. Peridot stopped alongside Lapis, she turned and covered her lips with her finger. She then pointed to her ears and cupped them like she was trying to tell them to listen. He looked at Connie who had looked at him, they both held their breaths, not making a sound as they listen to the cries of the forest.

Behind the mixture of noises that belonged to the birds and vermin, there were agony cries that were softer than a whisper. He could locate different languages they were speaking, English, Arabic, Spanish, Alien languages, and hundreds of more. Once he focused his attention to the sounds, they were gone replaced with the normal sounds of the forest. "Who is making those voices?" He asked in horror. Peridot looked at him, a small smile on her face, He couldn't tell if the smile held remorse underneath or not. He couldn't tell what her eyes were saying as she was wearing her visor over them.

He watched Lapis as her face screwed up in pain and tears welled up her eyes. Her hand went to her mouth covering it as she shook on her legs, Peridot and Connie had to hold her up. "This forest ... it's a burial ground for gems ... those sounds you hear are the gems that lost their lives in the war." He walked over to her and put his hand on her arm. "Peridot, why did you take us here?"

"The forest isn't where I wanted to take you all. The forest is just where the closest warp pad is to where I do want to take you. Are you okay enough to go further with me?" He was getting bad vibes from the forest; his mind won't stop trying to focus in on the voices. Usually, he grew to not care about things like this, but some reason his heart aches as he heard the voices cry out to him. Connie seemed to stay away from Steven the whole time, they were waiting for Lapis to calm down, when they started to walk again, it was the same thing. She didn't seem to like him as much as she liked the other Steven. Maybe he was to of a dick to her?

Steven managed to get in front of them so he can hold the branches for the others, by the time it was my turn to go, he wasn't fast enough for the branches, so he was getting cut up. His face was stinging, and bugs were swarming him, he just wanted to go home. He soon saw a clearing some little ways in front of them. His spirits were lifted as he ran past the others before falling to his knees as he saw was an opened field. Groaning, he looked behind him. "HOW MUCH FURTHER?" He called, his voice sounded like he was whining towards their way.

"Shush, Steven would have never whined. And we are here." Peridot narrowed her eyes as she walked up and around him, she stopped to put her hand into the open air. Soon, he realized that it wasn't an open field as her hand laid flat against something. The whole scenery was flickering in front of them, making a whining noise. The ground shook beneath their feet as a loud sound like a blast of some sort almost broke through his eardrums. Once he opened his eyes back up after the blast, what was in front of him was not an open field. In place was an ancient gem colony ship that looked like a flying saucer. He has never seen one in person, but he he seen pictures and heard about them from his moms.

He stood up and walked to the flying saucer, it was made of a dull gray, stone-like material with three legs. It was wrapped in overgrown vegetation from thousands of years being undisturbed. He watched as Connie put her hand on the cool rough stone, her eyes were wide with anticipation from what would come inside. Peridot motioned them back as she typed something into the keypad where she just had her hand at before. Steam radiated off the ship as the huge stone door fought to be lifted for what it seemed liked in decades, dust also flew everywhere making him cough up his lungs.  
  
Once the doors were open and the dust cleared, all four of them started inside almost like they were waiting for something to come out at them. When nothing happened, he took a step forward followed by the others. Inside of the ship it was more stone, but paintings were everywhere. "This is one of the last ships to land on planet Earth. A hundred years before the war had ended, I have taken you here because there is a device somewhere in this ship that will help me explain what happened to the tourmalines better." Peridot shrugged as she walked into the middle of the ship, they followed cautiously.   
  
He stepped away from the group to look around at the walls where the paintings were. Most of them were paintings of the diamond authority. "You know ... I do not support the diamond authority at all, but I found it sad when I heard that Yellow Diamond shattered White.” After a few seconds, he noticed it was quiet, he turned around slowly to see the others staring at him. “What is it? Did I say something wrong?” Peridot walked over to him slowly, when she got here she grabbed my shirt and pulled me into her.   
  
"What do you mean, Yellow Diamond shattered White?"   
  
"Did it not happen here? Yeah, it was before I was born though. My mom, Rose, she would use to tell me bedtime stories about the Gem War. My other mom, Pearl, she would make out the scenes with holograms. Rose was there ... she saw how Yellow Diamond felt like White had betrayed her. White wanted the earth to be saved because it was such a beautiful place, while Yellow and Blue wanted to colonize it to make more gems. I used to have nightmares with the images in my head, but then they got to a point where it intrigued me more than scared me." He shrugged like it was no big deal, but apparently it was a big deal to them.   
  
"That makes no sense!" Peridot said frustration. "As much as a clod Yellow Diamond is, she would have never ever shatter one of her sister diamonds before." She threw up her hands and yelled by the time she was done she looked over at me again. "In this universe, Rose Quartz is Pink Diamond, she got so fascinated by the beauty of Earth that she gave herself a false identity to rebel against the Diamond Authority. No diamond has ever been shattered and not like another Diamond would shatter their own in the first place. That gem you have is Pink Diamond. The war had ended shortly afterwards. This still makes no sense at all." He was taken back by this thought. How could his mother ever do something like that? How could his mother even be a diamond.

He shook his head, denying this, he wasn't going to say it, but it was obvious that he didn't believe it. "Can we just go find where we learn about the tourmalines please?" Peridot looked flustered before nodding, she motioned the other two to follow them down the long narrow hallways of the ship. It seemed like hours, but it was only about ten minutes before they even found the room they were looking for. Lapis and Connie were the most untalkative persons he knew, especially on this trip, they barely spoken two words. Going down one last narrow strip of hallway, they had found the room they were looking for. In the middle of the room was a huge electric panel, with a bunch of bottoms and one flashing red light.

Peridot ran over there excited, she got to work that second to see if anything was wrong with the panel. There were more paintings on the wall, "I remember the war ..." Whispered Lapis who stood next to him staring at the walls as well. "I could never get it out of my head, it was terrible. I lost so many gems that I had called my family and friends, I ended up in a mirror when the other Homeworld gems fled." He could tell it was hard for her to talk about this, so it was one of the reasons why he didn't understand the meaning of why she was trying to tell him all of it. "I was more of a messenger gem sent down to Earth, I was not much of a fighter, but I did work with tourmalines of all sizes. Every single one of them were different from their counterpart. Every single one of them were hard headed and strong. They believed that fighting for homeworld was an honor, they loved their diamonds fiercely. They thought if they fought hard enough they were become higher in status. There was this one specific gem … I remember them ..."

Lapis wanted to tell him more, but was interrupted by Peridot who was shouting in glee. Their heads turned towards the sound, and the bright lights that were flickering. Peridot was now sitting in the chair that had sprouted up from the ground in front of the panel. "Come here, let me tell you the story of the Tourmalines." They gathered around Peridot as she pushed some buttons to project a hologram image in front of them. "It was years ago; all the tourmalines were divided up between Pink and Blue. They were messengers, soldiers, high ranking officers, some replaced quartz as bodyguards for the diamonds if they did well in their strengths. Some were technician like Peridots."

On the screen showed images of Tourmaline gems in lines, flickering through images of them doing various things. There were so many different colors, so many different sizes and shapes. There were black, blue, green, and pink. Some were two colors, not one of them looked the same. "Some were even servants like Pearls, but treated a little better than they were. When the war had started there were thousands of them, by the middle there were less than a thousand, and by the end there were only a handful. Once Pink Diamond was “shattered” by Rose how the story goes, the other Rose Quartz were bubbled as well. The tourmalines started to act out, they started rebellions on Homeworld, causing trouble for everyone. It was mostly Pink Diamonds tourmalines that did that. Blue wanted to keep her Tourmalines, but they reminded her too much of Pinks and they were deemed too unstable. So, she had them all bubbled, some were destroyed as they also tried to rebel. No one knew exactly why they were doing this." The images that flashed were gems acting up, destroying things, they were destroying each other. "No other tourmalines were ever seen again."

"You know ... you could have told us all this back in the barn ..." Connie mumbled, and Steven had to agree with her, but he was shocked to even make a noise as he watched the battles and bubbling of Tourmalines. Peridot shrugged her shoulders as she pressed more buttons.

"I brought you here because there might be a way to bring you back to your universe and get our Steven back. I am not stupid, I do know that I could have told this at the barn, but from the technology on this ship I can probably build something. That is until I see what data they have in this database through. A lot of gem technology have this receivers that send out signals to be updated with new data. So, if I can just hack into the base I can see if we can send you back." This was just plain stupid, He ran my hand through his hair and turned his body, something in the corner of his eye caught his attention.

The tail end of a cloak disappeared behind something. "HEY WAIT!" he called out, and dashed after them. He heard the others yell at him and heavy footsteps following. The hallways were dark and were narrowing as they went further in the ship. His lungs were starting to burn and his face was hot as sweat dripped down his face and on his shirt. He stopped at a corner leaning against the wall he bent down, watching the sweat drip down his nose on the ground. He stood up straight to watch as a cloak disappeared in a space on the ceiling. "Come back here! I want to talk!"

"Steven!" Connie's voice was loud over her own footsteps and his breathing, she grabbed his shoulder once she made it to him. "Why did you run off like that?" She asked, she looked where he was looking just in time to see something red drop down out of the hole. Everything felt like it was in slow motion, one minute he saw a fiery blast the next he was holding his breath in a water bubble. He didn't know how long it was, it could have been only seconds, but it felt like minutes. The bubble popped, splashing water everywhere as Connie and him landed on the ground with a thump.

"Are you two okay?" Lapis asked crouching down in front of them, her expression was worrying. He couldn't answer as he was still trying to get air down in his lungs. "What just happened?"

"We are not alone on this ship. Whoever it is, they do not want to be discovered." He told Lapis once he had regained his composure. He helped Connie up, "Maybe we should get back to where Peridot is."

"Where is that, exactly?" Asked Connie.

They looked at Lapis who shrugged. "Are you saying we are lost?" He asked them.

Just their luck. Steven looked around, they got into a dead end and the only way out was through the vent or towards where they came from. He wanted to know who the being was, maybe he could be able to get through the vent and try to find them. “Lapis … this is a stupid idea, but I want to keep following the being. Can you bring us up to the vent? If any dangers happens, I am here, Connie has moms sword, and you are here. I want to know what their attitude towards us is for.” Lapis thought about it long and hard, she looked at Connie to see if she was up for it. The child only shrugged. Lapis didn’t like it on the ship, but she also wanted to know who the other being was here, and before Peridot who was alone gets hurt. She nodded and helped them into the vent before following them.

They crawled as the space were getting tighter and tighter, when it was to tight for them to get through anymore, Steven looked down, “Move back a bit.” He said and they did. Underneath them was another vent opening that lead down to an open room, he had seen movement down there. He motioned them to go back a little move, and with a tight squeeze, he positioned himself so his legs were in front of him. He kicked at the vent and with one final thrust he kicked the vent down. He made a loud crashing noise without a second thought he jumped down and landed on his knee. The others followed suit.

They were in some sort of laboratory, it was quiet and cold as a morgue. Even the great machines lay silent. A thin film of dust lay on everything. On inspection he found that even the computer had been formatted and the filing cabinets were empty. But curiously some of the personal effects of the scientists had been left carelessly lying around, like they'd left in a hurry and somehow not thought to take their belongings. It was eerie. What had happened to them? There was movement in the corner of the room as he looked he was barely able to see anything in the dimly lit laboratory. Every footfall echoes around, not loudly, but enough to give away their position to anyone who happens to be concealed in here. For a moment he consider skirting around the edges, then he stop - stop moving, stop breathing, while his heart speeds up to olympic sprinter rate. What he had thought to be a movie theatre sized screen in the corner of where he heard the sound was nothing of the sort

In that suspended moment, a fraction of a second drawn out to infinity, his brain offers an explanation and yet rejects it simultaneously. This is the stuff of science fiction, of movies, of horror. The "television" is a tank of murky liquid. There was something inside of it that he didn’t know what, and he didn’t want to know what either. Whoever this being was that they were following, they were doing some evil shit. “Hey, I know you’re over there. Come out, we don’t want to hurt you.”

Someone walked out from behind the tank, they were not able to tell her face as a black cloak hoodie covered it. The cloak was departed to show a brownish tunic with long sleeves, brown trousers that goes down to the mid of her leg and black combat boots. In her two hands were what looked like to be two pistols, without thinking Steven summoned his shield. It grew large enough to block the three of them, “Who are you? And why are you here?” Her voice sounded familiar to Steven as she spoke up.

Steven watched as Connie unsheathed his mother’s sword, and was ready to fight just in case if they needed too. “I am Steven Quartz, this is Connie, and Lapis Lazuli. We are no danger to you, we were taken here by our friend Peridot to show us the destruction of Tourmalines and to help me try to get home. Who are you? Why are you in this ship?” The person in front of us slowly put down her guns, one disappeared, but the other remind in her hand. The figure slowly removed her hoodie and showed her face. Steven gasped as he recognized who she was, she was the gem that was trapped in the necklace and helped him to this universe. “I know who you are. You are Zahara Apatite.”


	9. Chapter Eight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Every soldier must know, before he goes into battle, how the little battle he is to fight fits into the larger picture, and how the success of his fighting will influence the battle as a whole. - Bernard Law Montgomery

**Our Steven**

_He was back at the Forge, his stomach was dropping at a rapid pace and his heart was beating literally out of his chest. He turned around before jumping back seeing Bismuth with the Breaking Point strapped to her hand."Don't lie to me! You can't expect me to believe you now, after you lied about everything? You're lying about this new form, just like you lied to the others about ME!!" It was happening all over again, she had grabbed his shirt and held him in front of her face. He could feel the heat of the forge around him, he could feel the tightness of his clothes as she held onto him. He clenched his eyes wanting all of this to go way, when he opened them again, he was holding the hilt of his mother's sword. Tears were rolling down his face, "... You shoulda shattered me back then ... At least if I were in pieces, I wouldn't have to know how little I mattered to you ... You didn't even tell 'em ... You bubbled me away and didn't ever tell your friends ... My friends ..." He shook his head and fell down onto his knees letting go of the sword, he didn't want to ever touch it again._ __  
_  
_ _"I'm going to tell them! I'm gonna tell them everything." He whispered repeatedly._

_"Heheheheh ... Then you really are better than her." Bismuth had a tear roll down her cheek before she poofs, dropping the weapon, along with her gem._

"Steven ... Steven ..."

He had opened his eyes to find himself lying on the cold ground outside of the barn, he wasn't in the hot forge anymore, but he could still feel the heat from it on his body. His face tight like he was crying once again, but his head was laying on something soft like a cushion an not on the cold ground. Someone ran their hand through his hair taking it out of his bun he had made for it. He couldn't tell who it might have been, "What happened?" He groaned trying to sit up, but was pushed down again. His whole body ached like he was tumbled over and his head was swimming.   
  
"You hit your head pretty hard, Lil'man, I don't suggest you getting up." That voice, it belonged to Amethyst. He turned his head to the side to see her down next to him, her knees were up to her chest. "After you saw Bismuth on Leon, you kind of just stood there and then you freaked out tripping over a rock and hitting your head." That explains why his head was swimming and why there were black spots at the edge of his eyes. He looked to his other side to see Peridot there. He looked better before he was poofed, there was no bags under his eyes and the braces were gone when he opened his mouth to smile down at him. He didn't see any other gems. "The other gems are with Bismuth inside the barn, talking about good old memories. I don't even know who she is."

"She's not a good Gem. At least not in my universe. Back there she was poofed by mom and was hidden away inside Lion's mane. Mom had poofed her because she had made a device where it would instantly shatter gems called The Breaking Point. She had showed me the device back in her forge then tried to shatter me thinking that I was my mom." He got up, his legs were wobbly and he felt like he was going to puke as Lapis and Peridot grabbed both of his arms and steady him. Amethyst was in front of him just incase if he fell forward. "I'm fine . Let's go inside the barn. I need to see her for myself."

He looked at the three gems, they all looked uncertain, but nodded helping him walk back into the barn. There was laughter, and loud talking. There was also music, but Steven didn't know where it was coming from. It all stopped when they walked inside the barn, he hated how the gems all cared more about Bismuth then their own son who had fainted because of her. "And who are these four lovely people?" Bismuth voice ringed through his ears making him cringe and shake. He partly hid behind the other gems, Peridot instantly stepped in front of him protectively, the other two did the same. Bismuth stood in front of them, they were all the same height except of course Amethyst. "New recruits! Welcome aboard, we could always use more gems."

"Don't take a step closer," Peridot let out a low growl and Bismuth took a step back holding her hands up in the air. Just today, Peridot was threatening him, now he is being way over protective. Steven kind of liked it. "I don't know who you are coming out of nowhere on Leon, and thinking you own this place. This is my barn, I do not want you here or near Steven." Rose walked up and stood next to Bismuth the others joined.  
  
"Peridot! I will not have you talk to a fellow Crystal Gem like that. Apologize," snapped Rose, putting a hand on Bismuth's arm. "You do not even know her and you are going to be rude?"   
  
"I do not need to know her, Rose, to know she isn't a good gem, former Crystal gem or not. Do you not find it weird that your son fainted when he seen her? Or that she just came out of nowhere on Leon?" Peridot looked at Bismuth up and down, giving her a dirty look, he looked at the other gems to try and find any sign that they were wondering the same thing. Matthias stepped forward and turned around looking at Bismuth the same way Peridot was.

"Look, Bismuth, I love how you are back and all, but Peridot is right. For once. Where the hell did you come from? It's been almost 6000 years. I'm going to Peridot's side, I'm sorry Rose." Matthias walked over and stood next Steven. Steven was still waiting for the apology from him, but it can wait until after this is done and over with. "Explain please," his voice was soft towards the others. Steven then felt the gems hot breath on his neck. "Look I'm sorry about earlier." Steven just nodded not worried about it at the moment.  
  
Bismuth rubbed her arms, she looked uncomfortable as everyone stared at her. "I woke up in the Strawberry field, there were gem shards and weapons everywhere. I was scared and worried, I didn't know how long I was out. I didn't know where anyone was, I stayed there for what seemed like forever, and then this big guy showed up." Leon walked over to Bismuth and rubbed up against her. "He was Blue and I didn't know who he was. He reminded my of Blue Diamond though ... but he was friendly and he let me on him. I ended up here. Her story was very convincing, he wanted to believe her but what he went through it was hard for him to do. He stepped in between the gems to look at her. They were practically the same height.

"Hi, I'm Steven, I'm Rose's son, but I am not the one from this universe. I am telling you this because your story seems convincing, but I do not believe you, I do not like you." I saw Pearl's look of disapproval and saw her about to say something. "Mama, listen. Back in my universe, my Bismuth was bubbled up by Rose ..."  
  
There was silence and everyone looked at Rose, "She had stayed there for over 5000 years after she went missing from the battle for the Ziggurat, the truth was that, she had made a weapon called the breaking point ... she took it to Rose to see her opinion on it. Bismuth wanted to go to homeworld and shatter the Diamonds, but obviously, Rose couldn't see that happen. They fought to the point of where Rose had to poof Bismuth and bubble her." He took a deep breath.

"That's impossible ... w-why would I ever do that?!" Bismuth voice sounded like it was cracking and Steven felt terrible for not liking her, he just had trust issues, and she could be playing them. Steven then recalled the time where she tried to shatter him, Bismuth really did look like she was about to start crying. She had to wipe her tears as she walked over to him, he flinched when she tried to touch his shoulder. She slowly put it down, "Look, Steven, I-I don't know how I was in your universe, but I promise you, I am nothing like that. I do not believe in shattering gems, I might be very passionate as a Crystal Gem, and Homeworld has done many things, but not to the point of where I want to shatter them." She started to cry again, Rose and Pearl hugged her tightly. She pushed them away and went to grab Steven again, he had let her this time. "Listen to me, it might take time to get use to me, but again, I promise you, I will not hurt you, and I never made such a thing." 

"What happened to you in that battle then?" I asked her. 

"I was alone, it was dark, I was barely able to see anything. I was tired because I had to fight off multiple gems at once, then a Homeworld General, came out of nowhere. General Citrine, he was huge and I fought a good battle until I was poofed. I am surprised I'm still alive." Bismuth stood up and looked around the barn, and at each of their faces. "Look, I am glad to be back, if you believe me or not, I will not let you down, like I did with the first Gem War. If you said like earlier, that we are going into the second Gem War, then we will need weapons, right? I'll be your blacksmith, if you accept me to be." She said that as she looked at Steven and his group of followers.    

  
He nodded, “I am gonna believe you with this one. My friends seem to believe you as well. I am gonna be weary of you, but I do not hate you.” He closed the gap between them to give her a hug. At least they had more people on their side for the war that was ahead of them. Pearl then walked over to the two of them and put a gentle hand on his shoulder.

“It’s way past your bedtime, we need to get you home. You need sleep.” Steven frowned, he might be seventeen in this universe, but they sure like to treat him like he was way younger. He stuck out his bottom lip in a pout, “Do not give me that look, young man, you need your rest.”

“He can stay here, Pearl,” Peridot offered, “there is a spare bed in the loft.” Pearl narrowed her eyes. Peridot’s cheeks went a dark green, “I promise it is clean up there. Do not worry.” Steven’s eyes lit up Pearl and quickly nodding. She then looked at Rose who had a smile on her face, she nodded along with me. “Then that a go! Come on Steven, lets get you ready for bed.” Steven gave Peridot a sideways look, he didn’t need him to help him get ready for bed. Lapis pushed on his shoulders and he followed them up to the loft where there was a little room with a bed inside. Why didn’t he see that room before when he was up here? “Stay away from her, Steven. I do not like her one bit. I don’t believe her story, I just didn’t want to be called out by Rose.”

That’s why they had followed him up here, they wanted to talk to him about Bismuth. He looked over at Lapis and she shook her head, “I don’t trust her either, no one, I mean no one, even if they have been gone for such a long time be that comfortable with anyone. Meeting new people so quickly, that was hard for me. Bismuth, she might have known the gems longer than us, but they have changed and I guarantee that she has changed too. She isn’t good, so keep an eye out for her.”

Steven nodded before telling the two gems goodnight. They joined backed up with the others down on the floor of the barn. He had trouble sleeping that night like always, with the dream he has been having everynight, the scenes changed a bit to see Bismuth trying to shatter him with the breaking point.

Peridot stood outside of the barn, he leaned against the peeling wood, a cigarette was in between his parted lips as he looked towards the east to see the rising sun. The grey in the sky had begun to fade, as color crept from leaf to limb and the light slowly seeps up from beneath the earth’s horizon. The sky was strengthened slowly with blue, glazed with hues of orange and red, as the earth slowly revolves. The sun had lifted its head, and the colors shimmered in the light. With the dawn light rosy and pale, as the sun climbs higher in the sky, Peridot had taken a drag of his cigarette to blow the smoke out into the warming air. The new day has been born.

He enjoyed looking at the Earth’s sunrise, they had nothing like this back on Homeworld. Homeworld was bleak with barely any color to it, the resources were being sucked dried and the gems were being controlled by dictators, it was lifeless with no happiness on it at all. Just black and white all around the planet, but here on Earth, there were color, life and resources in abundance. He wasn’t going to let Homeworld take control of it, even if he died trying to protect his home.

The word home to him rolled nicely off his tongue, Earth was his home now. He had only been on this planet for a couple of years and there was still so much to learn about it. On those two years, Earth had showed him that it was okay to be different, it was okay to be yourself, you want to do something? You do it. Back on Homeworld, a male gem like himself was discriminated, looked down upon, especially an Era II gem. There was barely any of them alive anymore, whenever a male gem would surface they were usually shattered or made slaves by other gems. He had to prove himself to Yellow Diamond that he was capable of the job as a Kindergartner, it was successful until he came down here to see how beautiful everything was. Until he had met Lapis, she was so hard to get, but he had her now, she was his, and he would do anything for her.

Speaking on the devil, Lapis wrapped her arms around Peridot’s waist, and lightly kissed his neck. “You’re up earlier than normal,” her breath fanned his neck, and he leaned back against her. “I notice you left the bed, so I came to check up on you. Are you worried about the War?”

He nodded slightly, “I am, Lapis. No Era II gems ever seen war before. I am not a fighter, either. I am a technician, a kindergarten, a plain old Era II Peridot. I don’t know if I am able to do this.” She turned him around to grab his face making him look down at her.

“I’ve seen war, Peridot, and I’ve seen what you can do, baby, you will do prefect out there. Who cares if you are Era II or not, do you understand me? We will stick through this together.” She brought his face down to hers to lock their lips together. That’s when they heard a gagging noise, pulling apart they saw the other Crystal Gems, minus Garnet, and Matthew. Matthew was still asleep in his part of the barn, and Garnet probably was out doing something else. She was never around here anymore, Peridot noted that. He should talk to her about that.

The gem that was making the gagging noise was Amethyst as she was laughing walking over to them. “Get a room you two. What are you doing out here in the first place? Isn’t a bit early for you two?” Peridot shrugged and grabbed Lapis’ hand in his giving her a squeeze. “Oh, um, can you go wake up Matt? We need him out here, Rose wants to discuss something, but without Steven so make sure you don’t wake him up.”

Peridot walked quietly in the barn, making sure not to wake up Steven to go into the part of the barn where Matthias’s room was located. He had a room in the temple, but he had preferred to stay in the barn. Just made things easier. Matthias was sprawled out on his bed naked with only boxer briefs on, as Peridot crawled into the bed and started to spoon him. “Hey Matthias … shh ... do not freak out or you are going to wake Steven up.” Peridot whispered in his ear and nibbled a bit on it trying to hold back his laughter. He smirked as Matt’s body stiffened and he slowly turned around in his arms.

“What the hell are you freaking doing, Peridot?” He growled out and pushed Peridot off the bed on the ground with an oof. Peridot stood up and held back his laughter, he pointed to the loft and to his lip to silence him, before he made a walking hand signature towards the barn door. Matthias nodded and slowly got up, he bent down to grab his pants and shirt. He could always phase into clothes, but he liked to do it the human way of things. Peridot walked around the bed, and slapped Matthias ass, before running out of the room holding back his laughter. Matthias held back yelling at Peridot, hell do it when he got outside, but when he did he the the others sitting on the ground in a circle. What were they doing? Were they trying to summon Satan?

Matthias sat down next to Peridot who was next to Lapis. Sapphire, Ruby and Amethyst was on his right, while Bismuth, Pearl and Rose were in front of them. “So, what’s the dealio?” Peridot asked, “Why come so early? Is it an emergency because you usually don’t show up with everybody here if it wasn’t?” Matthias yawned, he was tired and he rather be in bed then here.

“Peridot …” Rose said softly, “Quiet, everything will be explained in only a few seconds. Sapphire, can you stand up, please and tell the others what you saw.” Sapphire stood up gracefully as everyone watched, her hands were held together in front.

“War is coming … Jasper and the Rubies have reached Homeworld … All you know is I can see different futures, but this one I have chosen to tell you all, I have a feeling will come true.” Ruby stood up and grabbed Sapphire’s hand, she could tell Sapphire was having a hard time talking about this. Last night, the two of them talked about the possible futures and none of them looked good. “Yellow Diamond is not taking the news lightly, she is sending a ship full of soldier gems … Pink Diamond is doing the same. I saw nothing from Blue though.” She stood there letting everyone get the news, Rose and Pearl already heard it, but their faces were still masked in grief. Peridot and Lapis looked at each other nervous, Matthias was staring down at his hands. He was wondering how anyone who loved him, especially Jasper could do this to him. To her and his family.

Amethyst was clenching her fists, she never liked Jasper, and it was all her fault that they now were going to go into war. “What now?” She asked them. What were they supposed to do now? They were short of hands, and a town full of innocent people. She never been to war being born 500 years too late, and now they were trying to take away her home. Earth was all she knew.   
  
“I expect them to be here in less than three days, they might be here earlier or they might take longer to get here. All I know for sure is they are coming back, Jasper included.” Sapphire took a glance at Matthias, who just nodded slightly, knowing what he had to do. “I am going to let Rose handle the rest.”

“Hold on … why didn’t anyone listen to me when I told you not to let Jasper into the Crystal Gems? I told you she was all going to stab you in the back when the times comes to save her own ass. No one likes to listen to me though.” Mumbled Peridot, “Whatever, I am ready for whatever is coming.”

Rose stood up as Sapphire and Ruby sat down, the usual smile on her face was gone with a frown in its place. She shot peridot a look of uninterest, ”If the visions are accurate that means we need to start preparing for what is going to come up next. That means we need to help evacuate the town, start training, and make battle tactics, and communicating devices.” The others stood up, their shoulders were heavy on their bodies, and their stress level went up 110%.

“I can work on communication devices.” Peridot volunteered, he was pretty good at those things. He was the one who had helped Yellow Diamond when her technology went to shits.

“Peridot, that sounds like a good idea to me. I’ll oversee building some weapons just in case. Peri, do you want to go down to the forge with me? It’ll be easier there than here.” Bismuth said as she stepped forward, “I was the blacksmith for armor and weapons in the first war. I had forged the sword Rose uses with my own very hands.” Peridot and Lapis stepped back from her, and Bismuth looked slightly hurt. Peridot felt bad by the way he was treating her, but he wasn’t going to right out trust her either.

“Fine … I’ll go down to the forge with you. I want to see your skills in person anyway. Rose’s sword is very beautiful. When do you want to go?” Peridot squeezed Lapis’ hand to walk over to Bismuth, “I am sorry that I have been acting like this since last night. I have trust issues, but you are not to blame. Once I get to know you, I might start warming up.” Bismuth took Peridot in her arms and hugged him tightly.

“Thank you so much! I do appreciate you accepting me in your group. You won’t regret this Peridot, I promise!” Bismuth was so happy, it made Peridot cringe a bit, he managed to pull away from her. He rubbed his arms up and down as a shiver went down his spine. “We’ll go down there as soon as Rose is finished talking.”

“Thank you, Bismuth …” Rose smiled softly her way, before the frown came back. “Matthias, my dear, I have an important mission for you, I need to speak to you alone when the meeting is done.” Matthias nodded, wondering what it could have been. “Ruby and Sapphire, do you remember where I stuck my light cannons?” Both nodded. “I need you to get them for me, set them up here when you have them. Amethyst you need to go find Garnet get her here, Lapis, I need you and Pearl to go look for other gems around that are willing to help us. I know there should be a couple, bring back whoever you can get. I’ll start to figure out a battle plan, once you guys come back we will discuss them together.”

“Got it!” They all said in unison, and they departed. Pearl gave a kiss to Rose before her and Lapis left, it was only Matthias and her standing there.

“Take your shirt off, dear.” Rose said softly, Matthias knew what was coming. He didn’t think she was going to be so blunt about though. He looked around to see if there was any other gems or even Steven looking over here. When there wasn’t he took his shirt off, his skin was started to gray and his vines were popping out a dark color on his chest. The once bright pink purple color gem was now looking gray with bits and pieces of color left. “I thought so…” She sighed and motioned him to put back on his shirt. “How long do you think you have left?” She asked him.

“I know how to control the urges, Rose, so awhile. I’ll be fine to fight in this battle, please do not think any other way of me.” Matt ran his hand through his hair, “Is that all you wanted to discuss with me?” He hated to talk about the subject with Rose, especially when her and Peridot are the only ones who knows. He has been going through it for awhile and it destined in all tourmalines. Some gems may catch it, but he was destined for this to happen.

Rose shook her head, she grabbed his hand into hers. “I need you to take Steven and train him. I do not know any of the skills he possessed. If he is going to be a part of this war, he needs to learn how to be a soldier. Can you do this for me Matthias?” Matt looked down at his hands before looking up at Rose, he nodded.

“I think I can do that, Rose. I don’t know how much he will be able to learn in such a short time, but I am ready to teach him everything I know.” Matthias held out his hand for her to shake, but instead Rose pulled him into a huge bear hug. He rests his head on her chest and closed his eyes hugging her back, this is what he needed to have someone hold him. They pulled apart, “The sooner I do it, the sooner he will learn. I’ll go wake him up now.”

“There is no need to wake me up,” Matthias and Rose turned to look over at Steven who was standing there in his boxer shorts. He had to use the bathroom when he noticed everybody was gone. When he had walked out of the barn, Matthias was already putting on his shirt. “I am awake, were you two talking about me?” Rose had whispered something in the Tourmaline’s ear before jumping out of sight leaving only him and Steven.

“So, what exactly were you and mom talking about?” Steven asked as Matthias got closer to him, he blinked a couple of times trying to get the sleepiness out of his eyes. His arm was grabbed and was pulled into the barn and towards the gem’s bedroom. “Uh, Matthias?” He didn’t look at him as he made his bed then went over to the corner where there was a box. He started to dig through it, “Dude, at least look at me. You can’t pull me into your room and not expect me to be a little creeped o-” Something was thrown at him hard hitting in him in his face making him shut up.

“Put that on,” Matt mumbled, he grabbed what was thrown at him to find it was a Gi. Why the hell does he want him to wear this? He quickly changed into the clothes. “Come on let’s go.” Steven followed him out of the room and out the double barn door. “Look, I don’t know how much you know, and we do not have the time to waste going over the basics. Your mother wanted me to teach you and that is what I am going to do.”

He watched Matthias as he moved his tunic to the side to reveal the grayish gem that tried to glow a violet pink as best as it could with sparks of electricity. Why did Matthias’ gem looked like that? It didn’t a few days ago. is hand went to his gem to pull out a basic looking sword, he threw it at him, which he caught it by the hilit. He nodded once in acknowledgement. He then drew out his sword, the one he had used earlier, it was beautiful. As Steven was admiring the sword, he was thrown off guard when Matt was in front of him within seconds, the tip of his sword was under his chin. “Whoa…” He stepped back away from the sword.   
  
“You have a lot to learn, you need to watch your enemy at all costs. Do not ever take your eyes off of me. Even if you are gawking at my sword.” Matt snapped and walked over to Steven, he had put his sword back into his gem so he loosened up a bit. “What do you think you are doing? Do not loosen up, I might suddenly attack you. Always be on your guard.” He grabbed Steven’s arms and forcefully made him stand up straight. He then spread his legs in the right stance, and raised Steven’s sword. “This is the position you want to stay in.”

The sword in his hands was light weight, unlike his mom’s sword. It was a bit weird for him. He stayed in the position he showed him when images of Stevonnie came into my mind. He had always trained with Connie in our fusion form. It just made this whole process weirder for him. “You know … I am always fused with Connie when I am training, so this is going to take some time to get used to.” Matt stopped what he was doing to look him in the eyes.

“What do you mean you were always fused with Connie?” He slowly stood up to his full height and looked at him. The look on his face made Steven quiver with fear, “Well go on.”

It took a moment to relearn how to form words before he was able to say anything back. “Well, in my universe, I had taken Connie out to the Beach, we started to dance then we fused, which made Stevonnie. And every since then, we have been learning and fighting together. So this is weird. When we are not fused I am her shield and she is my sword.” Matt’s face was unreadable as he looked at Steven then look away.

“That is unusual. I have never heard of a human and gem fusing before. Maybe it was because you are half human as well. Then again, I do not see how it is even possible. Maybe Connie has some heritage of Gem in her.” Connie having Gem heritage in her? Steven wanted to laugh, Connie with gem heritage? Impossible. “Whatever, we are getting off topic. I am going to produce a hologram for you as I am far too skilled for you.” Once he said that, his gem lit up and a hologram stood in front of Steven. Before he could even think, the hologram came at him. He moved backwards. Right, left, the hologram struck and he rolled to the side summoning his shield. 

The hologram struck and sparks flew as it contacted with his shield. Steven grunted as he tried to push it back, his feet dug into the ground as he was being pushed back. He saw Matt out in the corner of his eye, he had smirk on his face which pissed Steven off. A low growl entered his throat, before turning into a yell as he pushed back the hologram with a large thrust of his shield. He then jumped back as it regained its footing quickly. He came at him, ripping open his tunic and slashing his side, he hissed at the stinging.

It wasn’t long when he felt warm liquid run down his skin, but he ignore it as their swords clashed together. He had to ignore the pain if he wanted to defend his city, if he wanted to defend his family and friends. Matt out of the corner of Steven eye walked towards them, his reflexes kicked in and his sword slashed out, and that cost him another slashed against his chest by the hologram. He fell down on his knees holding his chest as blood seeped through my fingers. The cut I knew wasn’t deep, but he was just worked up and a bleeder.

Matt had called back the holo before coming over to him. He stood in front of Steven for a second until he got onto his knees. “Hey, are you okay?” He asked him, moving his hand away from the cut on his chest. He moved his hand to take off his shirt, before ripping open Steven’s Gi.

Steven winced as he pressed the shirt on his chest wound. “Do you even know what you are doing?” He asked him a little curious. He helped him up, one hand was on his back while the other was on his chest pressing down on the wound. He didn’t protest as he leads him back into the barn and sat him down on a hay barrel. He was silent as he grabbed his hand to replace his when he walked away. Steven didn’t like how he was giving him the silent treatment out of nowhere. He came back with a first aid kit and knelt in front of him. “Are you going to answer my question?”

“I am.” He said softly and removed his hand from the shirt. The shirt had blood soaked into it, looked like it was going to go in the trash after this. He was silent for another couple of minutes as he patched up his chest wound and then the side wound. Once he was done, he looked down at the wound Steven had gave him. “Hm, doesn’t look bad enough. I’ll just reform later.” Another few minutes passed in silence as Matthias took the bandage of Steven’s eye. It looked pretty good to the point of not needing it anymore. One everything was done, Matthias threw everything that was ruined away. “And as you can see I do know what I am doing. I have too much free time on my hands, so I went and got training in the medical field. Back in the 30s I decided to leave the group for a while and pursued a career as a nurse. Yeah, it was frowned upon by people, but I did it.”

“Wouldn’t they question you by the color of your skin? It’s blue, dude, and your hair is pink.” He moved a bit and winced, he grabbed his shoulder and shook his head. He didn’t want him to move, but he kind of wanted to go back out there and practice more.

“Oh yes, but my hair wasn’t always pink. At that time, I had brown hair, I just recently chose it to pink. Wait what year is it?” Steven giggled, and he smiled towards him. “I’m kidding it wasn’t until the 90’s that I reformed to have Pink hair. It matches better with my skin color. The 30s was my favorite decade, they had great fashion sense along with the 20s. Your moms, they loved the 20s it was their favorite decade. Amethyst, she was young back then, but she always preferred the 60s.”

“Why did you join back up with the Crystal Gems?” Steven asked him.

“Oh, that’s easy. I missed my family too much to stay gone for long.” He looked off in the distance, “I remember the moment I came back to the temple, no one was home, they were off on a mission somewhere. So, I waited, it was Winter of 1945 the war of the worlds just ended, Beach City was such a small town then, not much tourism. The snow was thick that winter, and cold, I could have always waited in my room until they came back. But what’s fun in that? I am glad that I didn’t go into my room anyway.”

His voice sounded far from his thoughts almost like he was reliving the past, he could hint a bit of sadness in there as well. He wanted to push him on more, but was that a good idea. His curiosity got the best of me. “Why? What happened?” He smiled softly and chuckled.

“I met someone that I didn’t know will be so precious to me.” His voice dropped, and he clutched his gem when his face screwed up in agony. He held out his hand stopping Steven from moving as he was about to jump up to see if Matthias was alright. His chest was moving up and down quickly, Steven noticed his hands were graying. His heart was pounding he was getting scared what was going on? 

“Matthias!” Amethyst’s rough voice yelled and heavy footsteps came running towards them. Steven looked over as tears started to crawl down his cheeks. “What happened?” Amethyst screamed at him, he got up off the hay barrel and stepped back shaking his head. “What were you guys talking about? Matthias, let me see your gem.” He backed up so far, he had hit something hard, turning around he looked up to find Garnet.

“Hey, do not cry, Steven, everything is going to be okay. Amethyst didn’t mean to yell at you.” She ruffled his hair, before taking me into her arms as they watched Amethyst lay Matthias on his back. He still wasn’t wearing a shirt, so they could see that his veins were darkening, and his whole body lifted in a spasm. When Amethyst managed to remove Matt’s hands, his gem was darker as well. “Amethyst, make him think of something happy. Do not let him fall down that path.”

“I’m trying!” Amethyst yelled, she was freaking out and it wasn’t helping the situation. He pulled away from Garnet and walked over there, falling on his knees, tears were dripping off his cheeks and onto Matthias. He didn’t know what was happening and he felt like it was partially his fault. “Steven, what were you talking to him about?”

“Winter of 1945.” He choked out wiping his tears away from his eyes before more started to fall. “Is this my fault? Did I trigger something?” He asked, Matt looked dazed and confused, he wasn’t responding to anyone anymore. He wasn’t dead, but he was just frozen. He shook him as more tears fell, after a few seconds Garnet pulled me away from Matthias. They turned around to walk out, when a gasp from Amethyst came about. They turned around quickly, and saw the blue gem shot up, he grabbed his head and looked around.

“What happened?” He asked, looking at all of them, then at his gem, which looked way better than before. It was still grayish, but better than what it was. He looked at his hands and his veins were lighter as well. Amethyst looked at Steven then at Matthias, “I have no idea what the hell just happened, but whatever it was, that was scary as shit.”

“Steven … did your tears help him?” Amethyst asked in awe.

 


	10. Chapter Nine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that." ― Martin Luther King Jr., A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches

Steven just stood there, confused. His tears shouldn't have helped Matthias at all, unless this universe's Steven had healing tears. Then again if that was the case then his eye would be healed by now, wouldn't it? Shaking his head, he wiped the stranded tears and walked over to Amethyst and Matthias. "Um ... they might have ... but usually it would be my saliva that would heal. That hasn't been working since I got here though." He helped Matthias stand up on his legs, "What happened to you?" He asked.

"He has Opscuritas." They turned their heads to look at Rose standing in the doorway. "Opscuritas, Latin for Darkness." Steven then looked at the tourmaline in front of him, his gem was still gray and his veins that surrounded it were too. "You can say it's the only disease that gems can get other than corruption. It's a mixture of human Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Schizophrenia, along with the mixture of corruption, but a different form. Tourmalines have been known to experience things like this." Rose walked around them so she can face Matthias, she looked down at the gem, "Are you sure you can still fight in this war?"

Matthias put a hand on his gem, it was hot and pulsing. Would he be still able to do this? He almost submerged to the condition, he didn't know if he could handle watching others break beneath him during the war. He barely handled it during the first War. He clenched his fist and stood up straight, looking Rose straight in the eyes. His pride wouldn't let him put pity on himself. "I will fight for my home, Rose. If I fall during this battle, I fall as a hero who defended his home."

Rose had a soft smile on her face and put a hand on Matthias' shoulder, squeezing it. She then leaned down and kissed his forehead. "Please, my son, do not over do yourself in this war." She whispered in his ear, "I fear that if you over work yourself, we will ultimately lose you for good." Matthias took a shaky breath, the only times she ever called him her son was when she feared for the worse. He wasn't going to let her down this time. He looked over at the other gems and Steven who was looking his way. They all quickly looked away as they noticed that they were all staring at him, he couldn't help, but to give a small chuckle. Rose turned around to face the others as well, "For all of you here, you know a war is coming ... there is no time to get sad over mishaps like this. Steven, you need to get back to training. Garnet and Amethyst, I know you two just got here, but all three of us need to get into Beach City and warn the townspeople to be ready to evacuate. We do not need any of them getting hurt because of our mistake."

Amethyst and Garnet looked at each other, the smaller purple gem grabbed Garnet's hand and they did a shake, before nodding towards Rose. "We'll wait outside of the barn for you, Mama Rose." Amethyst walked out with Garnet. She stood there outside of the barn and her smile faded, she wanted to crawl back into her hole at the Kindergarten and sleep for another five hundred years. She didn't know if she could fight in this war with the others. Look how small she was, compared to the other quartz soldiers that were going to be there. Amethyst's hands shook greatly, she needed to get ahold of herself. She couldn't show weakness if Matthias could fight than she can too. "Garnet ..." Garnet looked down at the smaller gem and took off her visors showing all three of her eyes. "A-are you scared?"

Garnet crouched down in front of Amethyst and nodded her head. "I am scared, Amethyst. This might not be my first war like yours, but it doesn't change the fact that I am scared shitless." She pulled Amethyst into a hug and they buried their faces in each others necks. "I am scared that I am going to finally lose everyone that I love. I am scared that I am going to be so helpless in the face of an enemy that I won't be able to fight properly. You're not alone." She wiped the tears away from Amethyst's eyes that were starting to form. "It's okay. I am here for you. We will get through this together and we will win."

Garnet stood up as Rose, Steven and Matthias walked out of the barn. Steven had a troubled expression on his face, he didn't even acknowledge the others as he walked over to where he was previously battling Matthias and picked up his sword. He didn't even bother to put on a shirt or another tunic, he was there wrapped in bandages ready to start practicing once again. Garnet wanted to ask what was wrong with Steven, but Rose must have seen the look on her face and just shook her head. She then motioned them to follow her which they did leaving Matthias and Steven alone at the barn once again. "I know we are still in the early stages of the war, but it's best to warn the people in advance. I want the lowest possible casualties as we can get." Rose started to tell them as they ran towards the warp pad. "Garnet, I want you to get the south of town. Amethyst and I needs to do business with a certain person."

Amethyst's heart fell a little more in her chest, she knew who Rose was talking about and she rather not go down that road. She wasn't going to tell Rose that, but the look on her face clearly says something. It didn't take them long to get to their destination, the van was sitting in front of the closed and run down car wash that he owns. Her palms felt sweaty as they walked up to the van, Rose was the one to knock on the door. Amethyst had a feeling that he might not answer because he was sleeping, or maybe he finally OD'd on his drugs. She almost wanted to see the day that he was dead, but she could just be still upset about the other day. Rose knocked once again, and Amethyst's hopes were crushed as the male actually answered.

He looked dead, he wasn't wearing a shirt so you can see his pale white stomach and his ribs outlined perfectly. His cheeks were also sunken in with bags under his eyes. He forced a smile on his face as he stared at the two ladies in front of him, "Well, hello there. I didn't expect to see you both here. You both finally decided to run back to me?"

Amethyst held back gaging, "You wish, I wouldn't even touch you with a 50 ft pole."

"You didn't say that when you were riding this dick a week ago." Amethyst growled and went to take a step forward to punch him in the face when Rose held her back shaking her head. "That's what I thought. So, now what are you really hear for? Because I need my beauty sleep for tonight. Big night I tell you."

Rose rolled her eyes, she didn't know how she could have ever been in love with this fool, "We came because we needed your help. You have a van, so it'll be easier for you to go around town. Unless you want to die that is, if that's the case we could always go ask Mayor Dewey." Greg looked up at the tall lady in front of her, he moved his hand to signal her to continue. "War is coming, Greg. The Diamonds are sending down soldiers, if you don't help us tell everyone to evacuate within the next two days then everyone in town will surely die. Do you understand me?"

Greg sat there in his van as he took in this new information, the Diamonds were coming to destroy them all. As much of an asshole he was he didn't think he could just sit around and watch as everyone sacrifice their lives to save this town. He nodded slowly and reached behind him to grab a shirt, he slipped it on then got out of the van. "I'll help, but not in the way you're thinking. I can't see you guys sacrifice your lives to save each other, I want to fight too." Amethyst started to laugh hard, and his face fell as his idea did seem kind of stupid. He had no fighting skills at all, he didn't even think he could hold a weapon if he tried.

"You fight? Did the drugs fry out all of your brain cells?" Rose hit Amethyst's upside the head, she immediately stopped laughing and looked down at her feet in shame for laughing.

"I am not going to risk your life to fight. You are gonna evacuate and that's final." Rose said shaking her head. "I need you to do this for me and for the Earth." She patted him on the head before turning around and started to walk away with Amethyst.

"You know I still love you, right Rose? I never lost feelings. I wish I never had started drugs and maybe you'll still be mine. But my life is my decision, if I decide to die for what I believe is right, then that's what I am going to do. I'll still help with the evacuation, but my stance is going to stay the same." Greg called after her, Rose didn't look back as she grabbed Amethyst's hand and they jumped out of view of Greg. His heart hurt and so did his feelings, but he didn't know that Rose felt the same way.

Meanwhile, Pearl and Lapis were deep in the Brentdows Forest on the other side of the world. "Why did we come all the way out here?" Lapis asked swatting away the mosquitoes as Pearl cut down the overgrown branches in front of her. "I'm pretty sure there is more gems closer to home. What if we needed back there and we aren't close enough to help?" Pearl stopped dead in her tracks and Lapis knocked right into her, she almost fell backwards. Before Pearl shot out and grabbed her arm stopping her from falling. "Why the hell did you stop all of a sudden?" She asked as she straightened herself up.

Pearl looked at her a put a finger to her mouth, indicating Lapis to be quiet. Immediately, Lapis closed her mouth and looked over Pearl's shoulder to see what she was staring at. There was nothing there, then something rattled above their heads and a blur was all that they saw. "We're here.." Pearl whispered as she took a step forward, but she seemed to step over something. Lapis followed suit taking as much measures as she could. She squealed as an arrow flew past her face only inches from hitting her. The arrow struck on the tree next to the two gems, Pearl stopped once again and summoned her spear, Lapis did the same with her water. Were they under an attack?

Pearl crouched down and motioned for Lapis to do the same. Did Pearl even know where the hell they were at? Or what was even going on? "Who dares enter this part of the forest? Speak your names or you shall perish underneath my arrows!" Lapis wanted to giggle out the cheesiness of this warning, the voice, however, was aggressive, making Lapis thinking the disembodied voice was being serious.

"We come in peace! We are seeking a gem that goes by Tristao. He is located around these parts of the forest. Who may you be? Show your face!" Pearl called back, there were leaves being rustled coming from behind them. Before they were able to see who was behind them, hands had covered their mouths. Lapis' heart was beating heavily, she wasn't able to see who their attackers were, then a body of the voice jumped down from the trees. She couldn't see his face as it was covered by a half leather mask that resembles the face of a hawk. On the mask there were a bloom of intricate feathers splaying on the edges and a sharp beak that goes over his nose.

He was tall too as he stood up, he looked to be about the same height as Tourmaline. He was only wearing black slacks with a leather strap around his torso, he was barefooted. On his upper half he wears a green open and sleeveless vest showing off his chest and his gem which is located on the right "pec." Right underneath that is a Wolverine Tribal tattoo. He was a Hawk's Eye Quartz, but he didn't have the body shape of a quartz, maybe that's why he was still on Earth. "Why do you seek Spessartine?"

The hand that was covering Pearl's mouth was removed, but her hands were still held closely together. "He is a friend of the Crystal Gems. We need to ask him for the favor he owes us. I assume you are in his group with the tattoo underneath your gem." The whole atmosphere changed once Pearl mentioned the Crystal Gems.

"Why didn't you tell me you were members of The Crystal Gems? I heard many stories of your group. Boys, let them go." The whole demeanor of Hawk's Eye had changed, "I'm sorry about the roughness, we do not get much visitors here. I'm Hawk's Eye, but you can call me Augustyn, the two behind you are Annabergite, or how he likes to go by Izaäk, he was the one holding the blue gem. And the one behind you is Cave Creek Jasper, or Elijah, but he prefers the nickname Lij."

Pearl and Lapis both stepped away from the gems and rubbed their arms, none of them trusted either the the three gems. They were not here the last time Pearl had gone and visited Spessartine. She also got bad vibes off the one called Augustyn as she turned to face him, "I am Pearl wife of Rose Quartz the leader of the Crystal Gems and this is Lapis Lazuli. Where can I find Tri?"

"Oh you can just follow those bimbos. They'll show you the way. I have to fix the mess you caused by cutting down the branches of our fortress. Good luck on your journey." Lapis out of the corner of her eye watched as the gem flew into the trees, he gave her shivers down her spine. She stayed close to Pearl as the two gems walked in front of them. The Annabergite was short compared to the Jasper, he was at least 5'10 while the other one was around 6'5. His skin was a beautiful turquoise with strips of a darker green, and his hair was a messy side sweep with short sides. He was wearing a white sweatshirt with the sleeves rolled up. The jasper reminded her of their old Jasper, he had the perfect body of a quartz soldier with thick flowing bulgarian rose hair, his skin was a buccaneer red with spots of lighter reds. He was also wearing a sweatshirt with his sleeves rolled up, but this time their sweatshirt was black.

Pearl grabbed Lapis' wrist and pulled her along towards the temple, Spessartine has been working hard. She remembered when the temple was small and child like now it was lavishing with life in every corner. Izaäk was the one who stood in front of the double doors leading inside the temple, he stuck his hand in the middle and the doors lit up with bright red letters from the ancient gem language. As the doors open, he stepped aside to let the other three to go in before him. Lapis gasped at the inside of the temple, it was beautiful. There was dim red lights that lit up the entryway, the walls were lined with alcoves, each one with what looked like a statue of a different gem inside. In front of them were small altars with different colored bubbles with the gem that matched the statues. Her heart vibrated with pain as they made their way down the hall.

"Zoze are zee gems … zat fought pezide King Sbess und zee Crysdal Gems during zee var. Zey had all zacrificed zeir liffes zo ve can liffe ours. Zey dezerffe zee greadest of honor." Izaäk was the one who spoke, he had a thick German accent that Lapis was barely even understanding, she looked over at Pearl, who chuckled a little bit.

"He said "those are the gems … that fought beside King Spess and the Crystal Gems during the war. They had all sacrificed their lives so we can live ours. They deserve the greatest of honor." Pearl recited and Lapis nodded, she had figured that much about the statues, she closed her eyes for a few seconds to say a few words, when she opened them she had almost ran into the Jasper.

“Ve are here.” He stood in front of another set of double doors, and stuck his hand out. Once again the doors lit up with red Ancient Gem words. As the doors open they were might with a sight of a huge gem with candlelight hair, and skin that was blended like water colors of different oranges and reds. His was shirtless with only slacks on as he flew through the air mimicking different martial arts movements. “King Sbess you haffe fistors. Zey zay zey are from zee Crysdal Gems.” Spess had stopped what he was doing to look at them as soon as he laid eyes on Pearl his “Pueblo” and “Sunshade” eyes lit up like stars. Pearl moved away from the two gems that escorted them here and ran over to the bigger gem as he ran towards her. Soon she was in the air laughing as he spun her around. Izaäk looked over at Lij who looked over at Lapis. She shook her head as confused as they were about all this.

“It's so goot to see you, my beautiful Pearrrl.” His accent rolled off his tongue, Lapis walked around the two gems and walked over to Pearl and Spess as he let her down. He stared at the smaller blue gem in front of him, “Ant who is this gorrrgeous lady?” Lapis’ cheeks turned darker than her skin as she looked down her hands.

“This is Lapis Lazuli, Spess. She is one of the newer members of The Crystal Gems, we’re here on a special mission. As much as I love reunions we do not have time for that.” Pearl’s voice sounded distant as she spoke to her friend.

“What do you mean? Has something happened to Rose Quartz?” His accent got less thick as he got worried that something happened to one of his best friends from the time of war. He had lost so many other people, he wasn’t about to lose her too.

Pearl quickly shook her head, “No. No. She’s well, but maybe not for long. The Diamonds are coming to Earth, Spess. The second Gem war is on it’s way. And we need your help …”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this chapter is way shorter than the others, but I felt like this was a good end for this one. The next chapters would continue to be longer. thank you for understanding.


	11. Chapter Ten

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a bit boring and I am sorry about that, I promise more exciting things will be happening in the next chapters to come. Definitely be more  involved around Steven once  again. ^.^ Thank you for sticking with me through this story. 

Back on the other side of the globe, Ruby and Sapphire walked around Beach City. "Seriously, do we even really know where she stuck her Light Cannons? And if we did we're too small to even carry them back to the barn of all places." Ruby grumbled and threw up her hands as she slammed down her body on the ground in frustration. Sapphire sat down next to her and gently laid her hand on the gem's head cooling her down a bit, Ruby lifted up her head and looked at her wife. "What are we going to do Ruby?"

"Hey are you looking for these?" Ruby jumped up on her feet to look over at the voice. Lars was sitting on top of one of the cannons, while Sadie was sitting on the other one. Greg had a huge trailer hooked up to his can pulling the cannons with him. "Greg came to us and said you might be looking for these. I had one in the back of my shop, he had the other one in his storage."

Greg jumped out of his van, "Hey guys! Thought you might be looking for these, I heard what is going down and I thought I help out a bit." Ruby stepped back with Sapphire as he walked over to them. "Come on, I am trying to help you here. Look I know I might have done some pretty bad shit in the past, but this is life or death."

Lars jumped off the cannon, "We want to help too. Greg explained everything. This is our town and our Earth. We have the right to fight." Sadie followed suit and grabbed ahold of Lars' hand. "Please let us do this. We have others heading towards the barn too. Everyone in Beach City is willing to help in this fight." Ruby and Sapphire look at each other, they both know that it would be dangerous to let them fight, but they did need more fighters to come and fight with them. They had little time to learn to actually fight with swords and weapons, but if they started now they can give it a shot.

Ruby pulled Sapphire to the side, "Are we actually thinking about letting them go with us and fight? Rose wouldn't like this very much, Sapphy." She whispered and looked over her shoulder to look at the others, they just stared at the m waiting. "They don't even know how to fight properly. They could get killed out there. I don't want their blood on my hands." Sapphire looked at her wife and moved her own hair out of her eye, she sighed and shook her head.

"We have to do something, Ruby. Without them we have no chance in this war, we will all be shattered. Rose will be made with us for a few, but if there is enough people on our side then we can do it." Sapphire lightly kissed Ruby before looking back at the others, hand in hand they walked over. "How many others are on their way to the Barn?"

Lars look at Sadie who then looked at Greg, "Um ... Half of the city so far. Some just evacuated, others are getting stuff together to go up to the barn. They didn't want to waste no time so they are getting things to camp with. Speaking of that, Lars, Sadie, you got everything you need in the van right?" They both nodded, then looked at the two gems. "So, what's the answer? Can we all head over there now?" Ruby looked at Sapphire then looked at the others, they both nodded. "Let's go then! We don't have time to waste!" Ruby shrugged and ran with the others to get into the van. It was a slow ride as the cannons were weighing down the van a lot, but they managed to get there, by the time they actually got to the barn, there were tents all around and a group of people waiting to be told what to do.

Sapphire and Ruby jumped out of the van and ran into the barn looking for a sign of Rose, what they did found was multiple different gems talking in every corner of the barn. From where Sapphire could see she saw a Jade, a Jasper, a Fire Agate, a huge Cactus Quartz about the size of Rose herself and many more. Where did all of these gems come from? Was this the job of Pearl and Lapis alone? Sapphire and Ruby made their way through the gems to the back of the barn where they were met with a much bigger gem, "Sdate your reazon to pe here." An Eilat Stone that had "Eucalyptus" with hints of "Jade" colored hair and "Green Haze" with a hint of "Spring Green." eye color stopped them from going to the back room.

Someone thene slapped his across the head it was a much bigger Jasper. "Bow you dumb fuck, it's a Sapphire and her Ruby guard." The look on the Eilat Stone gave Sapphire pleasure as they bowed towards her. "I am sorry, M'lady for his rude behaviour. You may go into the room." Holding up her posture the Jasper quickly got up and held open the door for her and Ruby. Once they were inside and the gem closed the door both Ruby and Sapphire started to laugh their asses off. It has been a long time since someone has treated Sapphire that way, it was enjoyable, but also annoying.

In the room when they cleared their laughter, they saw the eyes of Rose, Pearl, Steven, Matthias and one other gem. It took Sapphire a second to realize who it was, "I'll be damn, if it isn't Spessartine." She walked over there as the gem bent down and they shook hands formal like before they both laughed and gave each other hugs. "It's good to see you, Tin. How have you been?"

"I've been good, my guards didn't give you too much trouble did that?" Spess asked as he pulled away and got back to his full height. Sapphire shook her head, "That's good." He then turned around and faced the others, "Now where were we? Ah yes, the plans."

"Wait ... before you guys get back to what you were talking about. Um ... there's a bunch of Beach City citizens out there waiting for orders ..." Ruby rubbed her foot into the wooden floorboards beneath her foot. "Yeah ... um, we told them that they could help ... just because they were so stubborn about it."

"You did what?" Pearl looked angry before Rose put her hand on her shoulder. "We cannot have the death of humans on our hands. They need to evacuate immediately. Rose what are we going to do?" Rose was silent as she looked at everyone's faces, seeing their worried expressions, seeing their anger at the humans.

Steven was the one who had spoken up first, he stood up and bit his lip. "I know that you don't want them to help in this battle ... but I think it's a good idea. All together Pearl and Lapis brought back twelve gems ..." he looked at Pearl for confirmation and she nodded. "Twelve gems then there is us which equals up to ten more. That's only twenty-two of us to whatever the amount of gems homeworld is going to send down."

Matthias set a hand on the boys shoulder, "He's right, you know. Having them here with us gives us a greater chance. Yes, these gems are going to be way bigger and stronger than them. But if we can get a gem to be in a group of humans because I'm more than sure there's more humans out there then gems and get them to teach the humans how to fight then we have a chance. And I know that some of the gems such as Ruby and Sapphire would like to stay together so there is another advantage." Rose had thought about this before looking towards Spessartine they had worked side by side many times during the first rebellion and she counted on him to help her make decisions.

Spessartine noticed the stare that Rose was giving him with her bright pink eyes, he looked down at the map that they had scavaged of Delmarva, a huge red circle was on the map where they knew the battle was going to happen at. Why was this all happening now? After six thousand years of solitude peace with the occasional corrupted gem here and there, there was no need for another rebellion. What had set the Diamonds off for them to come now? He looked at the curly hair boy that stood next to Matthias Tourmaline, he was caught up on current news and who he was and who he was not. Except he couldn't help think of how he could have possibly have gotten here in this universe and all of a sudden the Diamonds were coming down to Earth. 

His heterochromia eyes met up with the dark magenta eyes of Matthias, they held so many secrets within the waves of color. He was hiding something like he knew was Spess was thinking about, he then looked away. That's when Spessartine felt a hand on his shoulder soft like baby hands, he looked to meet the eyes of Pearl, filled with such curiousiness and worried. "I'm sorry, I blanked out for a second. Were you guys waiting for a decision from me?" Pearl had just nodded as he gathered his thoughts and trying to remember what was being said. Then it clicked they wanted to know if Tourmaline's idea was good or not, he didn't know for sure if it would work. Most of his gems were anti-social and haven't been around a lot of human beings. Taking a deep breath that he didn't even need, he laid out his answer. "You will talk with your humans and I will talk to my gems and the leader of the Grey Wolves. We will meet back up at the barn to give you a honest answer on if we should do that or not. I do not want to say that we are in as I would like to know the opinions of my gems first." 

Rose had nodded in response, "Then that's what we will do. Let's go then." They had fanned out of the room, they heard Spessertine's voice boom over all the other voices inside the barn full of gems. He had called out for the leader of the Grey Wolves and one of his best friends. Suranga Gahnospinel, a fusion between Gahnite and Spinel, came pushing through the crowd of gems and met him in the corner of the barn where they were able to hear each other. In the meantime the others had walked out of the barn towards the group of people that had gathered around the side of the barn, the chatter had stopped when they had seen the group walk over.

Steven stared at the all seeing all the faces he recognizes from his universe, but with different features here and there. He counted about twenty five heads all together, twenty - five people who wants to sacrifice their lives for the city and planet that they love. Twenty-five people that might not make it out alive from this still wants to fight even if they know the consequences of their actions. The first one who came up towards them was Greg Universe, he looked liked he did when Steven saw him the last time. "I know you had told me to evacuate the town ... but we couldn't just sit around and let you sacrifice your lives for us. We want to fight and save our hometown, our planet." He got down on his knees and bowed his head towards Rose. He kind of look ridiculous like that, "Please ... forgive me for all the cruel things I have done towards you, Steven, Pearl and the others. Forgive me as I want to change and make life better. I want to prove to you that I am."

Rose let out a sincere giggle at the patheticness of Greg bowing down to her, she bent down on her knees to try and get to the height of him. It helped a bit, but not by much as she laid her hands on his shoulders, "Greg, you do not need to bow or approve anything to me. I can see how much you want to help." She whispered, "You do not need to hear me say I forgive you for you to feel forgiven." She whispered and stood up helping him up, "Now go back to the group, I have something to say to all of you." Greg nodded and walked back to the group standing besides Lars and Sadie, Rose grabbed Pearl's hand and squeezed. Pearl had squeezed back standing next to her, the others in the group stood in a line side by side staring at the humans in front of them. "Welcome ..." Rose stopped like she was trying to figure out what to call them all. Pearl whispered in her ear before she finally spoke back up, "Welcome citizens of Beach City, I am honored that you all want to fight for your planet ... but you do all know the consequences that will follow?"

There was mumbling all around them, Steven felt a pang of pain, these might not be his people that he grew up with him, but these are the alternative selves of those people. The day when the war starts is going to be the worse day of his life watching people die all around him. "You guys might not all survive ... is what mom is trying to tell you ..." Steven stepped forward his voice low, but clear enough for them to hear him. "Look, I know all of you want to do this, but are you all sure that you want to die for this planet, for this town?"

"That's what my baby would have wanted. That's what Connie would have wanted." Dr. Priyanka Maheswaran stepped forward with her husband Doug Maheswaran, the parents of Connie. He didn't notice that they were in the crowd, he guessed he thought maybe they wouldn't want to be here. "Our Connie had worked hard to be where she wanted in this world, she wanted to fight for the heart of Earth beside the Crystal Gems. So, that's what we are going to do. We are going to try and achieve our little girl's dream even if it means sacrificing our own lives." Steven wanted to let the tears fall freely, but he needed to look strong for the others.

"My mom ... passed away this morning ..." Sadie's soft voice came out of nowhere, she was hugging Lar's arm tightly as tears fell from her eyes. "I had told her what was going on ... her wish for me was to fight alongside all of you. So that's why I am staying. I am staying to make my mama proud because I couldn't before. I am nothing else to live for except for Lars and he is going to fight beside me with his parents as well." Steven just noticed that Lars' parents were standing behind them with a sad smile as they both put a hand on their son's shoulders.

"Dr. Maheswaran, will you help us set up a medical tent some distance from the battle area? We could sure use your help with the wounded when it comes. And if you still want to we can teach you how to fight." Rose said smiling gently down at the Doctor, who nodded her head in agreement. "For the rest of you, I need you all to wait here with Steven and Matthias. Pearl will take Dr. Maheswaran to set up the tent and I will be right back." She turned her back on her and walked towards the barn where Spessartine was just finishing up talking when she walked in. The other gems all turned and bowed their heads towards her as she walked in between them towards the male gem in front of the group. "Hello, Spessartine, have you and the group came up with what you want to do?"

“Yes, we have. Right, Suranga?” The other gem just nodded, but not looking at Rose, “What do you want us to do General Quartz?” he winked at Rose who giggled at his charm, “Do we just go file out and wait for your orders then?”

“Yes, Colonel Spessartine, that is exactly what I was thinking.” Spessartine asked the others to fan out the barn and to stand in a line of fours. When they got out there there were three lines of gems, the humans joined on the opposite of them doing the same thing, but with six lines of four then just three. “You’re probably wondering why you are all in lines and we are not?” Steven face palmed,  _yes mom they are wondering that._ Just then Peridot and Bismuth came back riding on Leon, right behind them was Garnet, Amethyst, and Lapis. Finally they were all together as they joined them in the middle of the two groups of lines. Bismuth had what looked like a sword strapped to her back in its sheath, Steven just shrugged it off waiting for Rose or someone else to continue.

“Like I already told my side, you are going to be grouped up with humans and gems. These humans do not know how to fight and so it’s up to you in the short amount of time to teach them what they need to know.” He turned towards the humans, “I am Spessartine and these are my gems, they are going to help you along with the Crystal Gems to fight.” He nodded towards Matthias to take the lead next, he looked down at Steven who nodded knowing exactly what he wanted. He wanted him to pair up so he can learn alongside him and the others.

Him and Matthias stood out of the group, “Do you want to start with the humans or the gems first?” Steven asked Matthias who wasn’t listening, his eyes went exactly to a gem that was in the front row of all the others. Her hair was in a messy high bun with twisted hair wrap and layered fringes in the color of blue dianne and persian green highlights. The gem’s deep sea green skin looked smooth like a newly polish rock, and her body is what anyone would call ‘pear shape.’ Steven was a bit creeped out by her though, she had scars on the corner of her mouths that made her look like she was always smiling, he wondered what happened to her and why she stayed like that. Her clothes gave her the appearance of ‘I really don’t want to do anything, but I am here,’ kind of look. She had a dark blue sweater that says ‘I’d rather be sleeping’ that was zipped down a bit just to see a purple shirt with the words that Steven thought could have said “I don’t do mornings” with grey joggers that goes up to her knees. She was also wearing high top converse, the look honestly fits her.

Steven followed Matthias over to the gem, the tourmaline had towered over her by at least roughly 51 cm. The other gem stared up at him with her mortar color eyes that seemed to glow with puce pink around the edges, she seemed unfazed by him as they just stared at each other. Steven wasn’t able to tell what either of them were thinking as both of their faces emotionless. He was going to open his mouth with Tourmaline put his hand over his mouth to shush him up, he never took his eyes off of the other gem. There was another gem standing next to her who seemed to be getting impatient with this whole exchange of stares. “Look dude, if you keep staring at my girlfriend, I am going to show you something to sta-” the female’s gem that Matthias was staring at had covered her mouth as well.

Finally after what seemed like forever, Matthias nodded letting go of Steven’s mouth. The other gem did the same, turning on his heel Matthias walked over to the human side, the gem he was staring at had followed and so did Steven. What was that exchange even about? What kind of gem was this? Why was Matthias just staring at her? There were so many questions, but not the right time to ask them all. “You pick,” Matthias mumbled the two words as he stood in front of the humans. Why did he have to choose who to pick? There were so many he would like to have on his team? He looked at everyone’s faces, he had only seen three who would directly look at him. Greg, Sadie Miller, and Bill Dewey. 

He didn’t want Greg anywhere near him, so he walked over to Sadie asked her to go stand near Matthias and the other gem, then he went over to Mayor Dewey and asked him the same thing. This time he had followed suit, when they were all together, Matthias spoke up again. “We got who we want on our team, we will go now and get out of the way.” No one said anything to them, all they did were exchange looks and nodded confirming for them to leave the rest of the area.

Rose knew exactly what the exchange was between Matthias and the other gem, the other gem was an Elbaite Tourmaline. It was rare to find any tourmaline on this planet anymore as they have been getting all wiped out by the disease that Matthias was going through himself. He must had been dying to ask her different questions about her health. Or if there were more Tourmalines like them. So many other questions that might never be answered if they do not win this battle. She hopes that they do win this battle for the sake of man and gemkind. The next gem up was Garnet to choose her team, Ruby and Sapphire gave each other skeptical looks, but decided to go along with it anyway. Obviously, Garnet had chosen Jamie, but she also chosen the girl who had mouthed Tourmaline just because she liked her spunk. Then she chose Harold Smiley, just because he always had a smile on his face even in this dire of times.

Sapphire looked at everyone’s faces, she was glad that her hair covered her face so they wouldn’t see the look she had as she saw all the possibilities of their fates in the battle to come. Most of them was not good, “Ruby, you choose who you want on the team. I cannot look at their faces right now.” She had whispered to her wife so no one else could hear them. Ruby nodded understanding where she was coming from, she then chose Lars Barriga, the Jasper that was guarding the door, later she had found out this his name was Elijah, and she had chose Nanefua Pizza. Next was Amethyst had she was all too excited to chose, she didn’t even take no time at all, she chose Buck, Vidalia, Onion, and the Fire Agate gem. 

Pearl stepped forward reluctantly, Rose wanted her to lead a team when all she wanted to do was stay next to her and fight beside the one she loved. She had chosen both of the Maheswarans, Mr. Fryman, and Suranga Gahnospinel. She gave a look to Rose who returned with blowing her a kiss. Next round was Bismuth who had chose Greg, both of the Barrigas, and a Cactus Quartz fusion. Then it was Lapis and Peridot, they had chose Jenny and Kofi Pizza alongside Peedee Fryman. There were only five gems left and seven humans left, Spessartine had chosen three of the gems to be the leader of their own groups, Annabergite, Hawk’s Eye Quartz, and Transvaal Jade. Annabergite had chosen Kiki Pizza, Marty, and Quentin Frowney, while Hawk chose Sour Cream, Yellowtail and Kammererite. The Jade had chosen Kevin, Ronaldo Fryman, and the Eilat Stone. The only two that was left there was Rose and Spessartine they looked at eachother then looked out over to the vast field, the teams were already going at it showing off what they could do and teaching others. Maybe they did have a chance after all. 

Spessartine had other ideas though, deep within his gem he just knew that half of the team that they started with wasn’t going to be with them. He had sensed the emotions radiating off of everyone, but he had focused more on Sapphire’s than everyone else's. She had dread surrounding her and sadness, so much sadness for everyone, and he tried hard to not absorb that emotion, but it was so strong he was feeling dread now as well. Rose stuck her hand on his arm and asked him if he was okay, he just nodded. “Let’s go finish that plan before times up, I want this battle done and over with Rose. I didn’t expect to be going in so soon.” He covered his gem that pulsed within his hand the warmth from it, soothed his anxiety. 


End file.
